


Left Behind

by fluffyfriz



Category: Pikmin (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Conflict, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Guilt, Injury, Light Angst, Near Death Experiences, Transformation, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-04-26 08:41:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4998184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffyfriz/pseuds/fluffyfriz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where Olimar gets injured during the final Pikmin 2 battle and things go a completely different direction. The pair have found themselves stranded on the dangerous and distant planet. Olimar has been turned into a Pikmin. What else could go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It Begins

"...You do realize that you're now trapped here with me...? Oxygen is poisonous for you still and your life-support system will likely stop working soon... how much longer do you have?"

He looked so... concerned. The other looked down.

'...5 days.'

"Hm..."

There was a long silence as he seemed to get lost in thought. He was frowning deeply.

'...Olimar, if it comes down to it, the Pikmin can always just take me to the Onion-'

"Don't. Don't give up so easily. We are going to find the President and we're both going to be taking that ship out of here and don't you dare think anything different."

He sounded angry and determined. More determined than angry though.

'...Okay.'

"Just...try to get some sleep...okay?"

Louie nodded.

**According to Louie we have 5 more days until his life-support will run out...undoubtedly, the ship has knowledge of this and will inform the President to leave once the time runs out...after that I'm not sure what will happen. There's always this idea that seems to float through the air; that we will have to turn Louie into a half-Pikmin hybrid that I now seem to find myself...I have told him time and time again to leave that option as exactly that: an option. Only for if we don't have any other way... for a worst-case scenario...I'd rather not think about what could be. We still don't know what a fate like mine could even begin to involve. If I can even go home like this...no, I must stay hopeful! For both of us! For my family! I must have hope that tomorrow will be a brighter day...My this is a mighty mess I seem to be in.**

**-Olimar**

He closed his log and thought back to the day where it all went downhill. How long ago was it now? How long have they been officially stranded? He couldn't remember very much, it could have been days now. They still don't know if the President is still here, if he's still looking for them or...

He turned to his colleague who slept silently nearby. Louie still hadn't told him what exactly happened but Olimar guessed that he really didn't expect him to. As much as he hated waiting and as impatient as he was he knew he would have to be patient if he wanted any more answers. If he was being truthful this was the most Louie had ever even spoken to him, so he knew that-despite his social limitations-the guy was at least trying.

...Regardless of whether Olimar knew the whole story or not, he always had faith in Louie. He had a feeling he was even a hero, having saved him after all, and that Louie had always meant well.

Louie had stayed behind with him. Maybe he just wasn't thinking about the possibility that their life-support systems didn't last forever, but Olimar felt that wouldn't be giving him enough credit. Louie was smarter than he often let off, the tired Captain knew that much. He had missed out on a trip back to Hocotate just to ensure that Olimar would be okay...

Said Captain yawned, going to lay his head down on the ground.

It was surprisingly comfortable to lay down without a helmet on, the grass felt soft; cushioned his head.

He supposed that with every fault being a half-Pikmin there had to be a positive.

* * *

He remembered wandering off for days.

He wasn't thinking clearly, he hadn't slept well in a long while. The first days had been terrifying, lonely. He entered caves, walked past many dangerous creatures that would have eaten him as lunch, if not for this  _weirdness_  that seemed to follow him around.

He was in some sort of trance, there was no way he even knew what was happening.

When he finally got out of it all, he remembered a familiar voice calling out for Olimar, wondering where he was. He looked around, wondering where Olimar was too. Was he here? Did he come back? His eyes were blurry and his head hurt quite a bit.

His vision was clearing though. When he could see again, the first thing he had noticed was that he found Olimar. Not exactly how he had hoped to see him again though.

He covered his mouth and his heart stopped.

There was Olimar, laying on the ground, helmet smashed to pieces and tiny fragments of glass everywhere, seemingly crushed under the body of a hugely colossal insect.

The voice grew louder, calling and calling as the unknown other was searching for Olimar.

He tried to think back to what had happened but things were unclear, faded.

'Did...Did I do this?'

The situation had finally set in. They were coming. He panicked.

He grabbed the injured Captain and got out of there.

He can't even remember how long he ran, where he was even trying to get to.

He ran until he couldn't run any longer, ended up in an area he hadn't been, ended up in a cave he didn't recognize...

He laid him down on the ground.

"Louie..."

...What is that?

"Louie...?"

* * *

He woke up startled, flailing around and vocalizing not words but a series of garbled sounds. He looked up and seen it had just been Olimar who was now looking down at him, worried that he was so scared.

"Sorry about waking you up, I had wanted to get started early."

Started?

'...What?'

"We're going to look around and see if we can't find the President or the Ship today. I'm tired of just sitting here and waiting for them to come find us." He could hear the frustration present in Olimar's words.

Louie gulped. He should have guessed that Olimar wouldn't just sit around forever.

'Is...Is that such a good idea, Captain?'

He turned around. Louie got a better look and noticed that he was holding something. He looked a bit confused.

"Why, do you think it's a bad idea?"

Louie thought for a second.

"...Think he'll become frantic when he sees me like this?' He snickered faintly.

'What? No, it's not that,' Louie shook his head rapidly, 'It's just...what if he comes here and we're gone?'

"Oh. Well, that is a good point but I've already got that much covered."

He revealed what he had been holding in his grasp: a note.

"I'll just leave it here on the off chance he might stop by."

Louie nodded silently. He always was really good at thinking ahead.

He watched from his place as Olimar went off to place the note somewhere it would be easily visible.

He felt terrible. He knew that chances were in favour of nobody coming.

He just didn't have the heart to say anything to make him disappointed.

He'd do as much as he could to let him cling to hope for as long as possible.

If that meant spending the day looking around, he wouldn't argue.

* * *

He followed Olimar out of the cave, squinting from the bright sunlight. He wondered how many days it had been now that they had been hiding off in that cave. He directed his adjusting eyes onto watching the captain more carefully than usual. Was it easier for him to be eaten now? He supposed it could be, what with the lack of protective helmet. He knew Olimar handled himself well, but would it be okay to go without Pikmin? He wanted to ask if they could bring some Pikmin with them but it seemed not really in his place to ask, he was really just tagging along for the ride.

Always just tagging along for the ride...

He hoped their safety wouldn't be even more threatened with his superior's new development.

As they walked out further and further, Louie noticed a surprising lack of enemies. Was there a reason a lot of the creatures were missing?

"I've found a lot of the more dangerous creatures don't seem to surface in the earlier hours."Olimar spoke up, seemingly reading Louie's mind, "Many appear to be -in a sense- nocturnal. I figured it would be ideal to travel before many of the creatures were awake." Louie made a small sound of approval, mostly just to let him know he was listening.

Always thinks of everything, Louie thought to himself.

They trudged through the area, Louie noting how Olimar seemed to be more lost than usual. Typically the guy seemed to have an air to him that he knew where he was going, but that seemed to strangely be absent. He was second guessing himself quite a bit, running into dead ends and u-turning every once and a while. Any glance Louie got at his face showed he seemed confused most of the time, mainly trying to find a path he could work with while scouting the place out. He didn't seem to know where to even start. He guessed he hadn't been to this part of the planet yet; Louie hadn't even been in this area before he had travelled there after...the accident.

Eventually, Olimar stopped altogether, rather abruptly too. Louie nearly crashed into his back. He was now looking all around, a finger pressed to his mouth as if contemplating something. Louie watched on, until the shorter turned to face him suddenly, confusion still spread on his features.

"Louie...where are we?" He seemed upset.

Louie didn't say anything, he wasn't entirely sure either.

"How...,"he seemed a bit awe stricken as he looked at his surroundings, "How did we even get this far away?" Louie looked away, finding it hard to look him in the eyes. Olimar just stared at him.

After a while, the short captain sighed and turned around and unenthusiastically began to walk away. He seemed to be a bit less motivated. Louie stood still and raised his hand in a way that said 'don't go' as he watched him leave, but couldn't find his voice. He wondered for a little while if he should keep on following him, but ran to catch up to him after he realized leaving him all alone was probably a bad idea.

He followed in silence for what must've been hours, watching as Olimar seemed to now be constructing some form of a map on a page in his log book. He remembered that they didn't have the ship to give them a sense of where everything was, any device for navigation even.

The creatures had seemed to become more frequent as the day was upon them. Every once and a while they found themselves needing to sneak around a creature in their path to avoid a fight. Getting eaten was the last thing they needed.

* * *

Louie could tell that Olimar was getting drained through the day, the situation seemed to be setting on him more and more, that time was ticking down and getting out of this area might be harder than initially thought...

'M-Maybe we should take a break?' He really felt that Olimar needed one, he seemed to be stressing out more than usual. Olimar didn't say anything, he kept walking, but after a while he seemed to take a right turn towards a particularly empty, quiet little spot and sat down. Louie went to sit down across from him, letting out a short breath.

They sat in an awkward silence, the same silence that lingered for the past few hours. Olimar put his head in his hands, sighing.

Louie felt really bad, he wished he still had that energy he seemed to have at the start of the day. Now, he just seemed broken. He didn't know what he could do to make him feel better, all he knew is that he wanted to. He wished he knew where they were, that he had some answer that would work in their favour. Something to make him have that hope once more. Something that would at least make him useful...

He looked up and noticed his superior holding and looking over the stem that protruded from his own head. Louie hadn't noticed before but he no longer seemed to have a leaf, but a red bulb now.

'Uh...', Olimar glanced at Louie.

"Hm?"

'Wh...What does it feel like?' Olimar seemed to look back down. He didn't say anything but he seemed to look a bit hurt. The blond Hocotatian nervously wondered if that was wrong of him to ask. Louie went to rub the back of his head awkwardly but his hand settled on only hitting his helmet, making an awkwardly loud clink sound. Olimar couldn't help but chuckle.

There was a silence again. Both looked down awkwardly for a while.

"...Well, if you really want to know...," Olimar spoke, letting go of the black stem that seemed to whip back into place above his head. He seemed to notice Louie's eyes light up to him speaking again. "It's strange. ...inexplicably peaceful almost. Breathing the air feels different, 'cold' I guess. Smells just seem to be stronger. The sunlight is remarkably more refreshing. It's...certainly different."

Louie smiled awkwardly, 'That doesn't sound too bad...', he replied quietly.

Olimar smiled sadly, looking down.

"No, I guess it isn't," he said. Louie guessed that his condition wasn't his main concern but-instead-what it could mean was. The captain still didn't know if he could even go home, and that was if they even found the ship...

"...Why do you ask?" Olimar asked. It took a second for Louie to process the question. He avoidably looked up at the sky, noticing that the it seemed to indicate it was getting later. Why did he ask? He supposed he wanted to know so that it might be easier if or when he would ever share Olimar's fate-

'...Just curious I guess,' he spoke shortly. Olimar seemed to have an idea that wasn't what really wanted to be said. He stared as his young partner looked up at the sky. He looked up as well. He was reminded of the sky back on Hocotate.

It seemed to be getting later...

"...We'll take some Pikmin out with us tomorrow," Olimar said a bit to himself. Louie smiled, laying back in the grass. He stretched his arms out, admiring the view the world gave; thinking of how if it came down to it, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to live on this planet.

'...Right,' Louie said under his breath, 'Tomorrow...'

* * *

After a while it seemed to be getting too dark for any more work to be done; the two had decided to retire to the cave for the night. Olimar looked down at the single sheet of paper that was newly covered with the map he had drawn. He was pretty proud of how it seemed to have turned out, he had little experience in cartography but felt he did a pretty good job capturing the area. He tucked his book under his arm, walking further into the confines of rock walls.

He had grown a bit accustomed to living in the cave and figured Louie had to of as well. He seemed oddly comfortable.

He looked over to his partner and noticed him sitting against a wall nearby. He seemed to be spacey: zoning out a lot more than he usually did. Olimar couldn't help but worry about him, he had been acting a bit off all day. He watched in slight amusement as he seemed to tuck both of his arms in and scarf down his rations from the inside of his suit. Eventually, he noticed his superior watching him and stopped chewing.

'...What?', he asked, his voice was muffled and his mouth filled with food.

"Nothing!" Olimar laughed and held a hand up in defence. The other muttered something and his face turned notably redder as he kept eating. Olimar had to admit, he was pretty hungry himself. He reached into his suit to pull out his own emergency rations. He looked at the small package for a while, reminded of how they really didn't taste very good.

Opening the actual package, he was even less appetized. He raised it to his mouth, but when he went to eat it he couldn't help but gag. He spit it out, choking and coughing. Louie had turned to him, wondering what was wrong.

Olimar dropped the thing, disgusted and feeling sick. He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered.

'What happened?' Louie asked, getting up from his spot and walking over. Olimar looked positively ill.

"I can't eat them," Olimar said weakly. Louie was worried.

'Can't eat them?'

"I...I can't..." It seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back, as Louie seemed to notice the small captain sink down to the floor. Louie noticed his eyes were getting wet with oncoming tears.

He recalled that he hadn't seen him eat in days.

Louie patted his back in reassurance.

'H-Hey, don't be upset...', Louie kneeled to his level awkwardly. He wasn't responding, he just laid there looking miserable, sick, tired. He wasn't sure how he could help him...

But a sudden thought struck Louie.

'Wait...Wait!" He spoke out loudly. He noticed that the little captain seemed to have his eyes on him now. 'I'll be right back!' He ran off and out of the cave quicker than Olimar had ever seen him run.

It only took him about a minute to return, out of breath and carrying what seemed to be a bowl in his hands. Olimar got up slowly, wondering what he could have. Somehow he thought he knew the answer before he even showed him, possibly because of scent? Instinct? He wasn't sure.

'T-Ta-dah!' He tipped the bowl to show Olimar the contents. Inside was a yellow jelly-like liquid that seemed to edge forward from the tilting. Olimar knew exactly what it was.

"...Nectar?"

'Uh-huh.'

He had to admit, it was a rather good idea. Louie knew more about food than he could ever hope to... and he was starving after all...

Olimar reluctantly accepted the bowl, muttering a thank you and looking at it curiously. It smelled sweet. He always wondered what it tasted like...

As it turned out, it tasted even better than it smelled. Louie watched in amusement as he drank the whole bowl in one go. Before he even realized it he was looking down at an empty bowl.

It was Louie's turn to chuckle at his eating habits.

'I take it you liked it?'

"I...hate how good that tasted," Olimar commented, turning away and seeming conflicted. The nectar made him fell a bit weird but in a good way. Strangely energized.

Louie seemed to look wide-eyed upwards and above his head, and Olimar was confused until he followed his eyes.

Huh.

Louie was grinning brightly at him.

'Nice flower,' Louie commented.

He had to admit, it was a pretty nice red flower.

* * *

It was night and Olimar wasn't feeling very tired. He laid on the ground. He found his mind was always reeling during the night, he had a lot of thoughts that always ran through his head. He turned to look at the blue light that always shone in the corner of his eye: Louie. He seemed tired, but also seemed to be trying to forcibly stay awake for some reason. Olimar could have sworn he always seen him looking at him when he wasn't looking. He wondered if Louie was staying awake because he was still awake.

He wondered if that was conceited of him to think that.

"Hey."

'...Hey.'

Well that confirmed that he wasn't sleeping with his eyes opened. He frowned.

"You should get some sleep, you seem tired." Louie just shook his head and shrugged a bit animatedly.

'...Nah I'm awake as ever.' Despite the rather emotionless tone it was clear to Olimar that he was lying. Even made more so when he seen him yawn widely. Olimar was a bit frustrated.

"...Why are you lying?" He couldn't help but ask him. Olimar couldn't read the expression he gave after he asked him that, it was a face he never seen the other make. It seemed like he was happy and sad at the exact same time. Relieved? He couldn't get a good reading off of him.

'I...', He didn't say anything more, he just sort of stopped. It was as if he had asked him a much more complex question like 'what's the meaning of life' or something. There was a long silence, and Olimar found his patience wearing thin with the guy.

"...Never mind," Olimar dismissed. He turned over.

'I...', Olimar's ears perked up hopefully, 'I don't know.'

Olimar just sighed at the answer.

"It's okay."

A long pause.

...

"If you're going to stay awake is it alright if I ask you something?" Olimar asked bluntly. He turned back around to look at Louie who looked back. He nodded slowly.

"...Why did you stay behind with me?" Louie stayed silent for a moment, as if trying to piece together what he would say.

'...I had to.' He stated simply. Olimar wasn't really expecting that answer. It seemed like Louie legitimately believed that.

"Louie...you know you didn't have to stay with me?" Olimar spoke. Louie just shook his head. "You could have looked for the President, you could have gone home...I guess I just-I mean it always just seemed like-I don't know...like you didn't really care about anything? ...That's harsh and out of line, I'm sorry-"

'No, no... Y-You're right...', he interrupted, 'C-Captain-'

"Hey now, don't sell yourself short, I didn't mean for it to come out in that fashion. I guess I'm just...surprised? You missed your chance to go back to Hocotate just to stick around with me and with my...-"

'It's not a big deal, r-really-'

"But it IS, Louie. That's what I'm trying to tell you. It's rare to find a friend who would do something so selfless, so altruistic...you risked your own well-being just to make sure that I was okay. ...Even though things didn't turn out so great, I'm alive because of you. So out of the bottom of my heart-"

'P-Please, don't...'

"I want to thank you, Louie."

'...'

"You are a very good friend, I am very lucky to have you-"

'No...no you're not...'

"But I am."

Silence. Olimar laid there, waiting for if he would say something.

The only thing he heard was a sniffing sound.

Louie was crying.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

He started crying harder.

"It's okay..." Olimar sat up.

'N-No it's n-not...'

"We're going to be okay..."

'Th-This is all my f-fault...'

"No it's not. Don't even think that..."

'I-It is...' He started walking over to where Louie was laying.

"Why do you think it's your fault?" He asked. The captain sat down next to him.

He curled into himself.

'My signal...'

"You're signal?" Olimar guessed he meant the device that allowed the ship to locate everyone, the device that's built into everyone's suits.

'My signal...i-it's broken.'

"...What do you mean?" Olimar asked, "Of course it is. We found it all smashed up beyond repair, remember?" Louie just kept shaking his head.

'No...I mean it wasn't broken.'

"I don't-"

'I broke it.'

A long silence. Olimar tried to process this.

"I don't understand-"

'You...,'Louie was visibly shaking, 'You ha-have to understand...you weren't waking up. I-...I panicked.' Olimar couldn't believe what he was hearing. He broke his own signal?

"...Tell me." Louie sat up slowly, leaning his back against the wall and seeming incredibly tired and weak for some reason.

'Y-You were out cold, your life support system was completely damaged...

...you had to be dead or near it...

I heard the President coming...

I ran off to try to get you to the ship

...but I got lost.

We ended up in a cave, a cave I couldn't recognize...

...I didn't want the President to find out that you were gone

...if he found me and seen you...

...it didn't look good...

...I smashed my working tracking device once a group of Pikmin took you away.

...I thought you were gone

...I thought that if they took me home they would be taking me back...but labelled as the person responsible for your death...

...the Pikmin who took you away dragged me over to the Onion...

I thought they wanted to hurt me...

...but I seen an unpicked sprout in the ground...

and...

well...

...by the time I found out you were okay...

the device was broken...'

There was a long pause. Louie seemed to be stiff, he looked as if he awaiting punishment, as if he was waiting for Olimar to start yelling at him, maybe hit him.

Louie thought that he deserved yelling and hitting.

Olimar did neither of those things.

He stood up, turned around and went still. He was quiet for a while.

"I...", he said quietly, "...I need some time to think about this."

Louie looked at his back.

'O-Okay...'

The captain walked over to the spot he had been laying before and went to lay down, his face hidden by the stone wall that he pressed himself against.

'Olimar...?' Louie got up weakly, following behind him slowly. He approached where he lay. He couldn't see his face.

He didn't reply.

'I-I am s-so sorry...'

And with those last words the only sound that followed were the quick footsteps of Louie leaving the cave.

* * *

He only ran so far until he found himself stumbling over.

He was incredibly weak.

He could barely breathe.

He started to sob.

He used what strength he had to turn himself over so he was laying on his back.

He raised his arm up to the starry sky as if reaching out.

He saw the red light flashing.

Warning.

The monitor read: 'DANGER! Life Support Failure'

He took one last look at everything

'It's better this way...'

* * *

The morning sun came shining through the cave entrance, as a beam of light shone on Captain Olimar's face. When he woke up he shortly remembered what happened last night. He looks around the cave.

This is where this whole thing started, he thinks to himself. He turns to where Louie always slept.

Except, Louie wasn't there.

Louie wasn't anywhere.

Did Louie sleep outside?

He wondered if maybe he might have gotten up early to start the day ahead of him.

He decides to go out and look for him, getting up off of the ground to stand.

He exits the cave and lets his eyes adjust to the sun. It was later in the day than when he woke up yesterday. When his eyes adjust to the light he looks around, searching for any signs of Louie.

It's not long before he thinks he see's a blue light off to the left, likely Louie's beacon light.

He begins to walk over. The light is low to the ground. As he gets closer he notices that Louie is laying on the ground. He wonders if he really did sleep outside. As he approaches closer he notices that something seems off.

He's not moving.

Olimar is hoping that he's deeply sleeping, but it takes only seconds for that hope to fly right out the window.

His emergency light is flashing intensely.

"Nonono..." He runs over as quick as he can and falls straight to the ground beside him.

"Louie! Louie, what happened!?"

He checks his meter and it indicates that the system has completely shut down.

"Louie! You said you had a few more days left! What's happening?"He's so confused.

"Were you lying?"

"Why would you lie about that?"

"I thought you had time!"

"I thought you still had time..."

He goes to check his pulse.

He panics, he doesn't feel anything.

He keeps trying and trying to search.

Until suddenly he feels the tiniest pulse.

He's alive but barely.

Olimar tries to pick him up but he's heavier than he remembers. It takes everything he has in him to manage to get him to the cave. He lowers him down and quickly he looks over his device to see if he could fix it or do something.

He's panicking. By the look of things there's nothing that he can even do.

He feels eyes are watching him.

He looks up.

There's a group of Pikmin forming around and watching everything play out.

"He's not breathing." Olimar says to nobody in particular.

He hears something weird.

It's a voice he recognizes but it sounds different.

It's a Pikmin's voice...

but he almost feels like he could understand it.

He swears he hears one of them say 'Onion'. He figures it a trick of the ears.

But the whole group seems to start chanting, repeating over and over the word 'Onion'.

After a while he figures out what they mean.

"No!" Olimar says sternly. They all stop chanting.

"There needs to be a different solution, there must be a better way..."

But Louie's system indicates that he's slowly losing all signals of life.

Olimar figures at this point there's really no other choice.

He's fading fast.

He lets them take Louie away, following behind.

He watches on nervously.

Deep down he's hoping that this will work as he goes to pull the sprout that forms out of the ground.

* * *

'O-Olimar? What-"

"It's okay...you're alright..."

"...A-Are you mad at me?'

"No, I'm not mad at you. I meant what I said when I said this wasn't your fault."

'...Are you crying?'

"...You should have told me the truth. You should have told me it was the last day for your life support. You should have told me about breaking your tracker."

'I-...'

"It's okay, I would have understood, I do understand...you were scared, weren't you?"

'I didn't want you to hate me...'

"You're my friend, Louie. I don't hate you."

'...'

"This was all just some dumb accident. It's no one's fault. "


	2. Discovery

**Yesterday was a day that revealed many truths. Many things that I found difficult to hear, but I feel had to be heard. I am somewhat relieved to have had unanswered questions now with answers. Our likeliness for success...it can't be good. With Louie's system having failed earlier than he let off I'm made aware the President will likely be returning to Hocotate on the ship...with the thought that we now both have expired.**

**...In all honesty, that may not be far from the truth. Who I may have been before may very well be gone, although, I still feel I am who I have always been...I am still me.**

**...We may very well be trapped here. The thought of never going back to my family or seeing their faces in anything but my memories is more than terrifying.**

**...I miss them so much**

**...I have grown too sad to continue writing...**

**-Olimar**

He closed his book and wiped away the forming tears from his eyes.

He turned to Louie.

He was still laying on the ground in the same spot, looking serene despite the many erratic tiny eyes that constantly watched over him curiously.

Louie had fallen asleep not long afterwards, likely because everything that happened had taken a lot out of him. Olimar wondered if it was the same for himself: if he fell asleep after he got turned into what he was.

Honestly, he did not know. Most of what happened had been a blur for him at that time...

Gaping holes were missing from what he could remember of it all.

He thought about how much harder this all would have been without Louie having been there at the time. How much more confused and scared he probably would have been. Being all alone with no idea what had happened...

He would help him through this as much as he could, but...

"...What's going to happen to us?" Olimar whispered to himself. He noticed some stray Pikmin eyes that had darted to him. He looked up and met a red Pikmin's stare.

_...And how did I understand them?_

He thought to when he had heard the voices of the Pikmin. Never before had their strange-and somewhat cute-language been comprehended by him or, to his knowledge, anybody else for that matter. Sure, he never prided himself on his ability to learn second languages, but there just seemed to always be this inability to grasp a single word they ever said...

Until now.

It was only one word but It certainly was a new development.

He stood up in his place. He had gotten restless, and felt he needed to go do something. Time for action, at the very least, had been wearing thin.

Olimar thought about how it was now later in the day and how that meant more dangers for an excursion out of the cave. He knew it was probably a death wish to go out alone and that waking Louie up to go out so soon was probably a bad idea for his well-being...

He also realized that without his whistle or red light beacon, Pikmin might not want-or have a reason to-follow him around...he  _had_  always wondered if those two things had been the only reasons they had seemed to have taken a liking to Hocotatians...

He gulped as he walked over to the flower-stemmed red Pikmin that never seemed to have stopped looking at him. He looked down at it.

A sudden want to speak to the Pikmin made his throat suddenly feel strange, as if there was this strange 'adjusting'...

That...was new.

"Hello...?" He attempted to speak to the little thing. In the back of his head, Olimar swore he had sounded different. It's head tilted to the side. He waited for a response, some sign that the Pikmin understood him. It didn't say anything, it just remained silent, wide-eyed.

Olimar frowned. He was beginning to think this was a bad idea. Maybe he never actually did understand them, maybe it was his imagination running wild as it tended to at times...

But then, he heard it.

It made a little squeaky noise that he registered as a greeting, a 'hello' even, as it was then raising it's tiny hand.

"Can you understand me...?" It nodded.

The next sound it made seemed to sound as if it said 'Olimar', as it clearly began to point at the captain. He was taken by surprise.

"Th-That's right!" He replied excitedly, crouching down to the red Pikmin's level. He was amazed to find it even picked up on his name. It chirped happily, raising it's arms up and down, repeating 'Olimar' over and over again.

"Can you help me?" Olimar asked. The red didn't seem to be paying attention, though. It instead seemed to be now preoccupied, looking and pointing way up above curiously. The captain worriedly wondered if there might be something on the ceiling; maybe an enemy or something that had the Pikmin's interest, but he didn't see anything.

The Pikmin vocalized something that sounded like 'we' and 'same', both questioningly. Olimar looked confused and didn't understand. The red pointed to it's own stem as it continued to stare at Olimar.

"Same?" Olimar asked. The Pikmin gestured to that same place above his head.

It sounded 'flower'. The captain suddenly understood.

"Yes, I suppose we are the same", he spoke, looking up at the stem on his head.

The Pikmin suddenly began to look behind the captain, his eyes directed towards something else as it let out a little sound of wonder.

Olimar stopped, thinking he also heard a sound from behind him suddenly and he quickly turned around.

His eyes went wide.

"Louie!"

His second in command was up and standing there, looking groggy and confused.

'Wha...-' He stumbled forward, a hand going to grip at his aching head. Olimar rushed forward.

The taller was squinting, looking as if he was pained, but expectantly went to look upward at the black stem that was now above his head.

'I-I'm...'

"Yes..."

Louie looked down, his face rather grim looking.

Then, he nodded, as if in simple acceptance.

They sat silently on the ground, Louie finding it hard to really express himself and simply watching a myriad of emotions that seemed to be running on Olimar's face, as he himself kept a rather blank expression. The blond wondered what he could be thinking right now, what was going on in that head of his.

What was always going on in that head of his?

Louie realized how woozy he himself was feeling. He was dizzy. When he inhaled it was a cold-ish burning feeling, like Olimar said before about the air but seemingly intensified. Everything felt sore. All his senses felt too intense. It felt like he had had been hit in the head.

He figured Olimar probably felt the same way at the time.

The red Pikmin with the flower approached from Olimar's side and began to look at Louie. It gripped onto Olimar's arm and peaked from it's place behind him like a shy child might. Olimar looked to it and smiled.

Louie wasn't surprised when the next thing it did was make a weird sound in it's language.

He  _was_  surprised, however, when Olimar seemed to respond to it in that same weird language, chirps and calls sounding incredibly strange accompanying his voice. And his only reaction as if it was the most normal thing ever. Louie's eyes went wide.

'What...What WAS that?!' Olimar turned away from the Pikmin and turned to Louie, wearing an awkward smile. 'We're you...speaking to it?'

"Yes, I suppose I was..." Olimar shrugged. He had a semblance of hidden pride in this. "I must admit, I can't quite believe it either!"

The red babbled something quietly to Olimar, and he let out a light laugh. Louie frowned.

'Well...?'

"Well?"

'Well, what did it say?'

Olimar rested his chin on his hand and gave a particularly playful look. He had a dumb grin on his face.

'Did it say something about me...?!'

"I don't know, did it?"

Louie paused for a second.

Was...was Olimar testing him?

'...How would I know?' Louie was beginning to get frustrated.

"So you  _can't_  understand them?"

'What? O-Of course I can't! What kind of question is that?!'

"I don't know."

'What do you mean you don't know?!'

"I guess... well, I just  _ASSUMED_."

'Assumed what?'

"That you might be able to speak to them as well?"

'Why would I-' Louie stopped for a second when Olimar and the Pikmin seemed to be giving him shared unamused expressions. He wondered why, until it finally hit him.

Oh right.

He was-supposedly-a Pikmin now. Or at least half one. Or something.

Olimar was just smiling warmly now instead.

"Maybe you should give it a try?"

Louie thought about that for a moment. Yes, he supposed that might be a good idea...

He turned to the red Pikmin to speak to it...

* * *

...But Louie found he was unsuccessful.

Either in speaking to the red Pikmin or understanding it.

Despite how much he tried to communicate with the red it only stared at him with a confused gaze.

They had even gathered the Pikmin of other varieties, all varieties they knew, figuring that maybe Louie might be able to talk to Pikmin of other colours.

Red, Yellow, Blue, White and Purple...

They had no luck.

On the upside, they discovered that Olimar's ability expanded to not only all reds but apparently all colours of Pikmin.

That didn't really help Louie though.

Olimar was legitimately surprised that Louie couldn't communicate with the Pikmin. He thought it strange that despite sharing the same half-Pikmin, half-Hocotatian characteristics, Louie would be unable to share his strange ability...

Was there something he was missing?

He noticed that Louie had seemingly wanted to drop the whole thing. He had grown frustrated with trying without success, and the whole matter seemed to had taken a hit to his ego.

...He had scurried off and out of the cave, off to search for food Olimar guessed.

Olimar had wanted to tag along, but he assured him he would stay close by and be right back.

In all honesty he was just glad that Louie seemed to be recovering rather well.

Olimar, in turn, spent the time to himself(if surrounded by Pikmin could be considered by himself)to try to speak some more to the Pikmin.

He knew he would need them if he ever was to get out of this area. There were too many enemies that lurked further out there, and regardless of how early Olimar and Louie would end up travelling, there was no way they would both be able to escape in one piece by themselves...

Urgency eventually had taken over his fear of asking too much of the tiny creatures, and Olimar decided to ask the Pikmin if they would help them.

"We need to get back to the ship and find the President." Olimar explained, motioning with his hands the best he could to emphasize 'ship' and 'president'.

He must've been bad a charades though; the Pikmin seemed to try to interpret what he meant, but they seemed to be a bit lost.

He figured that he would have to deal with this some other way.

He figured, that is, until the red Pikmin with the flower that seemed to have never left Olimar's side had stepped forward. The captain watched on, as it seemed to try to talk to all the others, but in a series of different words than he had used.

'Help, 'find', 'sky-rock', 'grass-mouth', 'for', 'Pikmin-father'.

He thought that sounded a bit like nonsense. Grass-mouth? ...There's a Pikmin father?

But suddenly, things seemed to have clicked into place for Olimar.

He thought back to a little while ago, when the red Pikmin had, in fact, been talking about Louie. Olimar had simply found it funny at the time that the red had seemingly called him 'crescent-head'. Now, he realized that they seemed to use that term as -when they communicated-a term for Louie...

'Cresent-head' was what these Pikmin called Louie.

Olimar guessed 'Sky-rock' was what the Pikmin seemed to call the Ship.

'Grass-mouth' must be their word for the President, possibly because of his moustache.

'Pikmin-father'...well, now, that surely couldn't be...

All the other Pikmin seemed to understand the situation now, and Olimar nearly fell over when they had all rushed to follow behind him, seemingly glad-maybe even ecstatic- to help.

And it seemed just in time too.

Not but a few seconds after, Louie had returned from outside; his arms were stuffed with several bowls of, what Olimar guessed from the intense scent and the fact Louie was Louie, were several food items. Some of which, his nose detected, was nectar(was he drooling? No, he wasn't drooling.).

But that's not all he returned with.

Olimar noticed that there seemed to be a ball, likely a bulb, at the end of his stem rather than the leaf he had at the start of the day.

Olimar hurried over, mainly to help Louie with his overflowing spoils but also to get a glance at his friend's new head ornament.

The captain took some bowls from his hands to help him in placing them down gently, as he tried to get a better look. He found that the taller Hocotatian's stem was too high up for him to see it well enough. Louie seemed to notice him looking; it seemed to make the taller Hocotatian a bit paranoid.

'...What? What are you looking at?'

"You have a bulb now."

At first, Louie looked at the short captain like he was crazy. Realization hit not long after though and he seemed to look up quickly, suddenly surprised.

'What? I do?' The blond placed the rest of the items down quickly, than reached his newly freed hands up to grab his stem, bringing it down in front of his face.

Olimar couldn't help but feel a sudden wave of intrigue.

Instead of the previous red bulb and present red flower that he had, Louie's seemed to be a different colour.

"It's...blue."

Louie nodded, looking a bit mesmerized.

It made for a lot of questions.

Louie seemingly has a blue bulb instead of a red one. Could he be a different variety of Pikmin hybrid?

"...Fascinating."

Olimar wasn't sure what this could mean. It could mean nothing. It could mean something. All he knew was that he couldn't be sure.

It opened up his thoughts to the possibilities.

Perhaps this would mean Louie had other different abilities from the ones he might have, like a red Pikmin differs from a blue or yellow, a white, a purple. Olimar wonders if perhaps Louie had the same abilities as a blue Pikmin because of the blue bulb. Maybe he could breathe under water now? He didn't see any signs of gills.

Maybe he himself could now withstand fire…

He was rather hoping he COULD withstand fire. The suits would protect them from dangerous elements from their necks down, but as far as face protection went...

He was interrupted by a loud and low growling sound.

"What was-" Louie smiled awkwardly, placing his hands to his stomach.

'Sorry about that. I'm starving...' Olimar let out a sigh of relief.

He was glad that the only monster in there was just apparently Louie's hunger.

* * *

Louie had made due with what he had collected and made a rather good looking lunch for the two of them. Olimar just hoped that it would be edible... it was entirely made up of several natural elements of which Louie chose specifically because of their ability to be consumed by Pikmin.

It was a good idea, but many of these elements had been things he never tried to eat before...

The short captain had to admit...it did smell incredible.

When he was finished making everything, he handed Olimar a bowl.

"Thanks."

'Mmph.'

Louie had already taken the opportunity to eat away, the bowl's contents seemingly going down with ease. The shorter captain was glad to see he still very much had his appetite...

...But Olimar had learned to not take heed from Louie as a good judge for what was edible and what wasn't. Louie would eat just about anything. The guy had eaten several things in the past that would make any normal palette ill.

That had made Olimar ill specifically.

The only way he would know if he could actually eat it would be if he tried it himself.

He tipped the bowl, going for a taste.

It was...well, it was actually really good. Olimar had been expecting it would be, though. He didn't particularly enjoy the pieces of pellet in the food, however; they were too hard to chew and he had to either eat around or swallow the things whole, but the rest was divine. He could get used to eating stuff like this.

Louie seemed to lay back after a while, looking rather content and full. Food always seemed to be the one thing that really cheered him up, he always seemed to be in his element whenever Olimar had seen him cooking. He was looking much better now, less pained, less tired, and because of the nectar, it seemed his head flower had even bloomed.

Olimar had taken that opportunity to get a look at it, examining it's blue petals with interest from afar. He reminded himself that he would have to take some more actual science-oriented notes on all of these new discoveries, when or if he ever got the chance...

If not for his own knowledge but for possible future explorers of this planet's knowledge.

But right now he knew that they only had half a day left to do some real work, and with the clock ticking down they would have to utilize that time. This time, however, they would have a map and a group of Pikmin on their side.

"...You ready to do some work, crescent-head?" Olimar joked, stacking the bowls tidily. He looked over to Louie for a response, who had been laying on the ground.

Louie took the opportunity to look offended but couldn't help but grin after.

'What sort of terrible nickname is that?'

"Would you believe me if I said it's what the Pikmin seem to call you?"

'Really?'

"Couldn't even make that up if I tried."

Louie laughed. He slowly got up from his spot, wiping off some dirt that had accumulated on his suit.

'Sure, of course I'm ready. Let's go... flower-head.' Olimar smirked.

"Hah! Look who's talking!"

Louie gave him a look, but looked up at his new head flower and looked rather happy with himself.

"I should start calling you Blue-ie."

'Ugh. No, that's terrible." He stuck out his tongue in distaste. 'Please don't. I'd even take crescent-head over that.'

* * *

The two had left the cave shortly, both standing still as they looked at the scenery around them. It was less bright out than it had been yesterday, but it did seem to be much warmer.

Olimar looked around to try to get a hold on everything for a minute, checking to see if everything seemed to be in order and such.

He checked to see if his log book was in tow, it was.

He checked if the Pikmin were still following him, they were; the red Pikmin with the flower always seemingly in front of the charge.

Lastly, he turned to see if Louie hadn't magically vanished. Nope, still there.

They were all ready to take on the rest of the day and really get into searching.

...Olimar just hoped they would still have a chance.

"You know, you don't have to come with me if you don't want to," Olimar spoke suddenly. He turned around at Louie who looked rather confused. "We're almost out of time, we'll have to keep moving if we want even a slight chance of reaching the ship in time...it's going to be a difficult getting out of here, I can tell. I don't want you to feel forced to do this with me. By now, the President would have received the information that your life-support system is down and will be leaving soon, if he hasn't already. There's no way to tell if we'll get to the ship even if we make it to the landing sight-"

'I'm not going anywhere," Louie replied bluntly. Olimar could tell that he was serious, too.

The smaller captain nodded, turning back around to the path that lie ahead.

And so it would begin.

 

 


	3. Survive

**Madness.**

The screams filled the air so thickly that no other sounds seemed able to cut through.

He heard every single one of them, heard every single word they called.

Cries of help, cries for somebody to do something.

Take some action.

But he couldn't even move. He couldn't do anything.

He was powerless.

His body was stiff but his ears were alive.

His eyes could still see but only to watch it all happen.

He could still feel his heart breaking as one by one each Pikmin had been devoured.

* * *

A loud mechanical sound rang, a sound that startled a lone alien. He turned to the source: a large spacecraft off to the sidelines, standing tall and inactive.

-Don't take offence with this, but I do not understand why you are still staying behind, sir.-

In all honesty, he wasn't sure why he was staying behind either.

Maybe it was the letters: the letters from his two employee's families. Wondering where their grandson was, where their father was, where their husband was. Begging for a reply that he was unable to give...he was not them. He was not their beloved family members.

Maybe deep down he was just really hoping they were okay. Out there somewhere on this dangerous planet, very much alive.

Maybe just pranking him. Laughing at him from the shadows. Prolonging their appearance for added comedy...

He wasn't sure if he would be able to give the news. Maybe he was waiting it out, trying to muster up the courage to tell these desperate, worried people that their loved ones were missing, that one of them was almost definitely dead.

Maybe he was wishing it had all been just some malfunction with the somewhat poor, shoddy technology each of them had, the technology-he cursed-of which he had given those two.

Bought out of the company's wallet.

Out of his wallet.

Maybe he felt responsible.

Maybe he was  _supposed_  to feel responsible.

All he knew was that he would wait...

But then, his worst fears had seemingly become reality, early in the morning some days later. A warning rang loudly, waking him up from a restless half-sleep.

Of course, he wasn't getting any real sleep since they vanished. Since his precious few employees left with nothing more than shattered glass as evidence they were there...

He almost wanted to be sick when he had read the Ship's monitor.

The monitor indicating that Louie's life support system had begun to shut down.

The screen that showed as Louie's heart rate dropped, dropped, dropped.

Only able to watch as his employee's life drained from him by the minute.

Until his life was entirely gone.

-...We've lost him. He has passed. Louie is gone, sir.-

* * *

The skies were a brilliant blue, the sun high in the sky with sunshine that felt strangely rejuvenating and strengthening as it lit up the world. It gave the two energy they never expected, the strength to keep going on with much more ease.

The leaves shifted gently in the wind, the same wind that blew on bare faces, wind that felt rather nice on skin. The plant life was massive and teeming as it always was, white masses of clouds up high so pure and fluffy, the sound of the stones that moved by footwork, the sound of a stream that neither explorer could see...

They would keep going. They would keep moving until they would be forced to stop and the only way they would be forced to stop was either by the incoming fall of night... or through their own deaths.

There was little that would stop them at this point, little that would hinder the red-flowered captain's determined search and his blue-flowered partner's strong resolve to help in that search.

The threat of being trapped on the unknown planet forever always lingered.

It reminded the leader of his first visit to the Pikmin planet. How it had been a struggle to survive, treasure hunting had been but a thought in the back of his head at that time. No, not even a thought, maybe just an idea. His goal had been purely to recover his precious ship and return home to his family, to see their smiling faces again...

In a sense, this felt a lot like that same time: maybe with a bit more complications and sheer urgency, a partner to even help him escape this time, a lack of a need to find ship parts particularly... but it was still very similar.

It was a fight against fate, a fight to get home...

He suddenly stopped. There was an enemy he spotted up ahead, a run-of-the-mill red bulborb, sleeping on the ground, it's legs tucked under itself.

Olimar turned around to count how many Pikmin they had...

He was glad that in the beginning days they spent under rock walls him and Louie had taken to making more Pikmin, creating more reds from the onion they had had in the cave.

42 reds, 5 yellows, 7 blues, 2 whites, 3 purples...

Even with virtually every close by pellet used and every stray Pikmin they could find, it likely wouldn't be enough for the whole trip.

They had swiftly sneaked behind the sleeping mass of bug. Olimar turned to the Pikmin. He felt that familiar and strange adjusting in his throat again, his voice fluctuating to accommodate different speech, it seemed.

"Ready?" He whispered, once again using their odd language. The Pikmin all nodded.

Olimar than turned to Louie, Louie who had already been looking at him for guidance, and smiled to him and nodded. Louie nodded back, cautious determination on his face, as he picked up and held one of the heavier purple pikmin in his grasp.

Olimar started throwing reds at the bulborb from behind, the flower-headed red Pikmin the two had come to know leading the charge. Louie threw the purples first. The beast awoke rather suddenly, it's eyes opened as it quickly stood up to it's full height, a sound the two explorers were familiar with exiting its maw loudly.

It was about to attempt to shake the many attacking Pikmin off, but it didn't even get the chance to try. The bulborb came crashing down shortly, leaving only a corpse behind, a ghost, and an anguished scream.

The two leaders stepped forward, looking at the fallen enemy somewhat triumphantly. Pikmin had taken to swarming around in an attempt to lift and carry it with them.

'...Should we take it back?' Olimar thought about this for a minute.

"We don't have time." Louie seemed to nod slowly. Olimar pondered what they should do, if anything, with the large downed insect. He concluded that they simply had to keep moving forward: daylight was burning. Nothing really could be done aside from leave it behind.

He went to call the Pikmin back but realized they no longer had whistles...

"Come back!" He attempted to call for them in their tongue and was relieved when they all seemed to get the message. They all came rushing back to follow behind Olimar and Louie, dropping the bulborb. The shorter captain had went to turn to Louie, about to tell him they would be moving on, but Louie seemed to have walked forward.

He went towards the insect, stepping further and only stopping once he was in front of it. He seemed to be eyeing it with some sort of hunger. Olimar watched with a sense of disgusted fascination as Louie seemed to tear off a loose portion of the creature's torso entirely, slinging it over his shoulder.

When Louie turned back around, Olimar gave his comrade a grossed-out look. "...Did you really have to do that?"

'...What?'

"Do you have to be so...," he made some vague movements with his hands, "...Louie? All the time?" Louie let out a breathy laugh.

'Y-You'll be real happy that I'm Louie when I make an awesome dinner for both of us with this later.'

Olimar shrugged. He guessed he couldn't argue: just opting to ignore it and keep moving forward.

* * *

They took down a few more insects as they moved. To their relief there was nothing too bad: a few different varieties of bluborbs, some breadbugs, a rather annoying swooping snitchbug...

They had successfully made it a good distance with surprisingly only one Pikmin casualty; a red leaf Pikmin that had been swallowed down by a sizeable Bulborb due to some poor judgement. Olimar cringed when remembering it's sad screams only moments ago...

The red captain noticed that it was getting later and that they seemed to be getting cut off by bugs more and more as the sun was setting.

It was not a great sign.

At the rate they were moving, they wouldn't find shelter before night time.

Louie noticed as with the night fall came a certain urgency to Olimar's steps...he seemed to have an idea as to why. He continued unquestioningly, simply quickening his pace to keep up with him. He always looked back to check if the Pikmin were doing okay, even opting to hold a few stragglers at times.

Olimar's worry seemed to increase further and further as the world turned dark, he wasn't sure if they would all be able to make it before night...

Until, he seen it.

"A cave!" There was a cave off in the distance, not far from where they stood.

He turned to Louie with a sense of hope, stopping a moment to point it out to him.

What good fortune, and just in time too. He watched the final minutes of daylight as they slipped away, his feet seemed to be picking up as in the final moments he looked at the sun going down...

They would have to hurry, they would be cutting it close...

"C'mon! It's right there! We have to hurry-"

A loud crashing sound, that nearly gave Olimar a heart attack. Louie had screamed, startled.

'Wh-What was that?'

An even louder crash.

The two Hocotatian's eyes darted around the area, trying to find the source of the sound among the trees. It was too dark, they couldn't see anything.

**CRASH**

A shocking current seemed to strike from the sky, a blinding flash that appeared as quickly as it left. Thunder? No, it couldn't be thunder. It was some sort of...powerful energy. Olimar stood in front of the group, sensing an unsettling amongst his team, his arms spread out protectively. Louie looked from behind him in fear.

There was a powerful tremor.

Suddenly, two gleaming, bright orange eyes showed from the shadows. When in full view a soulless gaze looking right at the Pikmin hungrily, than shifting to Olimar, Olimar who stood in front of them all.

A terrifying scream.

A high-pitched clicking that rattled ears.

It amassed.

Olimar had never seen anything quite like it.

He knew they couldn't fight something like this, no, not this big.

He wanted to run, get the Pikmin out of there...

But he was frozen. Something in the air had seemed to keep him in his place.

He found that he couldn't even feel from the neck down.

"Louie, I can't move!" He turned to his partner.

'Me neither!'

Out of the shadows emerged it's grotesque round bipedal body, looking like a twisted form of dark grubdog. It's maw hung low, sharp and pointed teeth-like broken glass-bared and seemingly clicking together. Olimar traced those teeth to the clicking sound, as the creature was quickly snapping them together like some devious instrument.

But suddenly, the sound stopped, as the creature opened it's mouth fuller and fuller, a mouth that promised death, to consume every last Pikmin that stood in front of it. To consume anything that stood in front of it. Everything in it's way.

And they were frozen. They could do nothing.

Olimar watched as one by one each was devoured by that mouth, their screams filling the night time sky, their calls for 'help' now heard by his new and cursed ears. What had been seen as a gift was now a huge burden, he was able to hear each and every last cry for help the Pikmin made and now understand what they said only to be their final words.

Louie seemed to look over with worry, fear: Olimar had let his own terror seep onto his face to the sounds and, this time, when Louie sought comfort in his calmness in the heat of battle that calmness was absent.

At that moment, Olimar was terrified. He was afraid of death. He did not want to die by this creature that now stared at him promising his demise. He did not want to die like the Pikmin had moments ago. He did not want to die a Pikmin. When Louie looked at him, he could see all of that...

And something in all of this madness made something in Louie  **crack.**

He wasn't going to let them die today; him and Olimar weren't going to die.

They would _live_.

The large creature came charging forward in what felt like slow motion, it's final target locked-on and clear: Olimar and Louie. It's mouth had opened wide, salivation dripped from teeth, teeth that began to close in, closing on both of them, intent on crushing them both to shreds...

And suddenly, everything just seemed to _freeze._

Everything seemed to stop.

There was a sound that seemed to cancel out the clicks the creature had made, but it wasn't fear-driving. It was a soothing and low buzz that cut through all the noise, a foreign and strange sound.

Olimar opened his eyes that he had closed so tightly, wondering why he didn't feel the creature's teeth sinking into him, the creature tearing through his skin...wondering what that sound was...

The beast had seemingly gone still, it's eyes gleaming a bright white.

A soulless light.

He stared ahead at it, startled. It was as if he couldn't look away at that moment.

It took everything in him to tear his gaze away from it, turning only to check if his partner had survived as he seemed to...

He gasped in shock.

In that moment, Louie had looked particularly terrifying.

Louie's eyes were  _wide_  and had that same strange quality: that strange white glow the insect had.

His fists were balled tightly, his teeth tightly clenched together.

_...Was he the one who's stopping the creature?_

_How-_

"Louie-"

'GO! Run!'

Olimar wanted to argue against him, not wanting to leave without him, but at that moment he made a particularly terrifying look that made Olimar decide against it. He called and gathered up what little Pikmin were left and ran towards the cave, as fast as his sore legs could carry him.

* * *

...

_...What's going on?_

_Am I…?_

He felt like…

He felt like he could  _feel_  something.

Something  _powerful_.

Something  _terrible_.

It was like he was in the gigantic bug's brain. It was like he could  _feel_  everything it was feeling...

All it's anger and  **rage**

All it's  **instincts**

Instincts to  **kill**  and  **eat**

To hunt for food food  **food**

To tear the Pikmin to  **shreds**  and  **devour** -

He seemed to snap out of it, shaking off the thoughts; at that moment the bug dropped to the ground with a thud, seemingly now paralysed as they had been moments ago. Louie wasn't sure what had happened, he felt particularly disoriented, but he wasn't about to drop a given opportunity.

He ran. Ran as fast as his legs could take him, so quickly he even caught up to Olimar, regardless of his hasty head-start. He ran behind the Captain at a steady pace, picking up some lagging Pikmin.

Olimar turned around to look at him briefly and seemed relieved to see him… but there was something else in the look he gave him.

Fear.

He seemed afraid of what had happened but more importantly…

He seemed to be afraid of Louie.

And Louie could see this.

* * *

They noticed that the creature had taken to pursuing them not long after they got away, it's loud footsteps shaking the ground as they continued to run. Quickly gaining speed, it's long legs making up the distance...

They pushed themselves to go faster, faster, faster

Fast as their tiny legs could move them, past all their tire and exhaustion...

They made it inside of the cave, but that still didn't seem to be enough.

It had chased them even when they had entered the cave, it seemed to follow them even when they had reached the entrance...

but to their relief, it seemed to be too big to enter.

It knocked it's body against the rock, crashing against it in an earth-shaking rumble, a rumble that knocked out rocks from the ceilings, crashing down around them and nearly crushing them more than a few times.

Olimar was terrified, he watched in horror as it tried to snake it's body through the rocks and get in, tried to break through the stone.

It seemed very capable, very possible that it was going to kill both of them.

It crashed again and again, over and over it tried to break through the cave.

Each time it tried, his heart seemed to stop in his chest.

CRASH

_CRASH_

**CRASH**

The walls and ceiling seemed almost as if they were going to buckle in, crushing all of them under what was meant to be protection...

In all of this, somehow, Olimar noticed something though.

Something promising.

The creature's tries...they seemed to be getting weaker.

It had even stopped, stopped it's crashing, created silence.

They thought it was over, that maybe it had ended.

Olimar noticed movement from the creature, shifting through the view of the outside...

It peaked it's orange snail-like eye in the hole to get a look at them...

But it seemed for the last time.

It had finally given up.

They could hear the sound of it's loud footsteps leaving, getting quieter and quieter as it moved further away from the cave...

Until there was complete silence. Silence that they waited through, silence that they hoped would last...

And then, they knew that they were going to be safe.

Exhausted, afraid, but safe.

Olimar fell to the ground, entirely worn out.

He let out a weary sigh.

With the remaining energy he had, he took his book out of his pocket, opening it up on the floor. With shaking hands, Louie watched as he seemed to jot a few words, only to pass out after.

Louie waited a moment, but decidedly picked up his book and read.

**Today...was a bad day. There is no other way of putting it.**

**-Olimar**

 


	4. Night

When Olimar finally woke up, the first thing he noticed was a strong, incredibly powerful smell. A good smell. A food smell. The next thing he noticed was that he was feeling dizzy, light-headed and weak. His throat was dry and he was parched. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes groggily. It felt like he had slept on a rock, and when he looked down to inspect the ground, that seemed to be exactly what he had done. The ground was covered in stone.

How had he fallen asleep? Where was he? He couldn't remember what happened...

He noticed his book laying on the cold ground, wide open and with the entry he had just written.

That was the last thing he remembered doing: writing that entry.

Then, blackness.

He looked down at the text and suddenly noticed something scribbled underneath it, something not in his handwriting. He began to read.

**If by chance you're trapped on a planet without a proper heating appliance, seek out a heat-generating or fiery creature to cook your food with. You can actually capture fire with a stick or branch and escape from the creature with portable fire, to avoid the perils of cooking on top of a living thing. The heat of fire will make for a good replacement stove. When cooking only a portion of a red bulborb's torso, be sure to add several other edible elements to make it a fuller meal. Keep it soaking in juices to keep it savoury and to-**

Olimar shook his head and closed the book.

While he didn't appreciate Louie writing in his journal, he was rather glad that he was okay enough to write in it in the first place.

Oh, right...Louie.

Suddenly, he remembers everything: The large insect attacking them, the devastating toll taken on their Pikmin, The strange stunt Louie had pulled...

He opened his book again, taking out his pen. He turns to a new, blank page.

**While a red-flowered Pikmin-Hocotatian seems able to speak to and understand Pikmin through changes and adjustments to the vocal chords and ears, the blue-flowered Pikmin-Hocotatian appears able to stop enemies through mysterious means. More information needed.**

He closes his book, tucking it into his suit.

He then begins to look around, trying to find Louie. He couldn't see him anywhere, all he could really see through the darkness was rocks: rocks on the ground, rocks on the walls, rocks that had fallen from the ceiling, rocks that were the ceiling. He's worried that maybe he might have left. He really hoped he didn't: if he went out this late at night, there was no telling what could happen. Then again, if he was going off of his journal entry, Louie would have already left and come back-

'Look who's up!' Olimar hear's Louie's voice -sounding unusually chipper- and turns to the source of the sound. He doesn't get a chance to see much of anything though, as suddenly he feels several small hands, small heads, small bodies, all rushing at him at once and toppling him to the ground. He looks down, afraid at first that it could be an attack, a group of small insects perhaps, but quickly notices that there's nothing to fear.

As it turns out it's just a small group of Pikmin that tackled Olimar, all making little joy-filled sounds at him, hugging at his arms and legs. He smiles, relieved to see their happy little faces alive and well, going to pat a few of them on the head. Somehow, he recognizes them, all from the group they had before except...they seem to be battle damaged. They're the survivors in the fight against that dark creature of night, the creature that had frozen his and Louie's movements, the creature he decidedly deems in his mind to be called the 'Smoky Bulblax'.

He's upset to see there are so little an amount of Pikmin. Now, aside from him and Louie, there only seems to be 11 of them.

Among them, the red Pikmin with the flower seems to have survived.

'Dinner is almost done.' Olimar looks over to Louie. When he spots his second in command he is sitting over by a fire he seems to have made himself, a makeshift 'pot' draped over it and held up by a sizeable rod of sorts.

...Efficient. Louie's survival instincts were quite incredible.

When the lanky cook looks away from his working, he gives Olimar a sad smile. Olimar can tell that there's falseness to his face, that he's simply  _trying_  to seem upbeat,  _trying_  to make things seem better after what had happened...

The small captain nods. He looks back down at all the Pikmin surrounding him.

"Dinner sounds great."

* * *

Louie had cooked a lot more food than he usually did.

Sure, he tended to cook large portions often to account for his incredible appetite, but this time there was a considerably large amount. Noticeably large. Too much for just two people, regardless of how hungry one of them could get.

Olimar thought it strange at first, it was something he had never witnessed Louie do. He was not one to make servings that had an impossibility of being entirely eaten. It made him wonder at first if Louie was just massively hungry, had a colossal hunger that would have required this much food. It seemed hard to believe that even Louie could eat that much though.

But quickly he noticed the several extra makeshift bowls Louie had seemed to have gathered, smaller bowls, there had to be around ten of them.

Then, Olimar realized why he had been cooking as much as he had. Why there were so many bowls, so much food.

It was for the Pikmin: the Pikmin that had survived, the Pikmin that would stay in the cave with them this night. He had made enough food for all of them, cooked for their colourful helpers.

...It felt odd to Olimar, it was not something the Louie he knew might usually do.

At that moment, he had heard the clanging of Louie removing the pot from it's place, sliding it from the rod to instead sit on the floor. He looked on, petting a few Pikmin that were at his side at the time, and watching with interest. When Louie went to grab the stack of bowls, Olimar stood up.

"Do you need some help?" He began walking over, not really waiting for an answer. The chef seemed to be struggling a bit, attempting to hold such a large pot and hold the bowls to pour it's contents into at the same time. Regardless, Louie still shook his head, even though it seemed he really could use the help.

'I-I'm fine.' Olimar didn't really listen to him though. He slowly reached to take the pot from him, instantly noticing as Louie seemed to flinch and sink back, pulling his hands away. He could have sworn he seen something weird emoting on his face for a minute, but he didn't say anything about it.

It almost seemed like pain.

Had he burned himself? As Olimar held the pot, it didn't seem to be hot enough for that. He wondered if maybe he had gotten hurt earlier, maybe during the fight. Both of them had to be at least a little scraped up.

Louie held up the bowls one at a time for Olimar to pour the stew-like food into. As they went, the small captain had noticed the crowding Pikmin, their eyes bright even in the dark cave, their interest written in expressions, endless curiosity apparent and directed at what the two spacemen were doing. He could hear, but not fully due to the immense overlap of sounds and his need to concentrate on other matters, 11 different Pikmin's questioning words; some saying 'food', some 'what', 'nectar' and etcetera.

When they finished pouring all of the bowls, Olimar began handing them out to the small creatures, watching as their eyes lit up, his ears twitching as he heard their happy mewls.

After they gave out all the smaller bowls, Olimar sat down on a softer patch of ground, careful not to spill the bowl he held in his hands. Louie sat pretty far away from everything, further into the cave where there was little light. The taller watched as his superior was staring ahead, distractedly watching as all the Pikmin ate, not even touching his own food. He seen a small smile on his face; It was good to see him smiling again.

He wondered if Olimar was afraid of him still...

He noticed said captain began to turn back around to look at him, and he turned away quickly, pretending to be invested with looking at his own food.

Out of the corner of his vision, he could still see Olimar looking at him. He began to eat quicker.

"Thank you," Olimar said. Louie nodded shortly, never looking away from his food. He could feel his face heating up and his throat getting dry.

There was an awkwardly estranged silence all through dinner, the only sound Pikmin stuffing their faces and the occasional crack of the burning fire.

* * *

To Olimar's dismay, Louie tried going right to sleep after dinner. It was late, he was tired, and exhausted psychically and mentally. He had this really bad headache ever since that strange experience with the dark creature, a headache that roared in his head. Those terrifying voices ringing and ringing...

He laid down on the ground, his face pressed into a rock wall, his ears active as Olimar seemed to be cleaning up the scrawl of dinner and gathering the bowls.

It seemed everything was beginning to sound like a low buzz in his head. He later heard Olimar speaking to some Pikmin, but couldn't make sense of any of it. Everything seemed fuzzy. Not that he ever could understand them anyway.

Eventually the buzz overtook everything. He couldn't hear anything, his eyes started to slowly close, and he found himself falling out of consciousness and into sleep.

...

He opened his eyes.

Suddenly, he found he wasn't in the cave any more. He was out in the forest, his back against grass, his sight seeing the tall trees.

Everything looked different. Less colourful.

He was outside and it was night.

His heart skipped a beat.

He got up quickly, looking around in disbelief, trying to make sense of how he had gotten there. Wondering if this was a dream or not. It seemed too real to be a dream, but somehow too fake to be real at the same time.

He began walking, trying to locate the cave once more, trying to find Olimar, or the Pikmin...

He heard life moving through bushes, insects scurrying and burrowing, the sounds of night-life. A group of male sheargrubs moved by him, making him flinch and duck in fear, but they had simply passed him by with nothing but a glance.

They had clearly seen him, why hadn't they attacked? This was getting really weird.

He didn't feel himself.

He was going to look down-

He suddenly felt something pushing at his side. He turned around quickly, looking to see what was there. There was nothing. It was a blank and empty spot.

Maybe his imagination?

He felt it again, more forcefully.

The buzzing stopped.

...

"Louie!" He heard a hushed whisper.

'...Olimar?'

He opened his eyes, finding out that he had in fact been outside. It was in fact night.

...But he wasn't where he was before. He was in a different part of the wooded area, a place he could actually recognize as not far from the cave.

He could tell that this was different, this was real.

"You were sleep walking." Sleep walking? It didn't feel like he was sleep walking. He had never had issues with sleep walking in the past-

'...I-I was?'

"Yes. I seen you leaving the cave, so I decided to follow you," Olimar explained, "I had to make sure you wouldn't get yourself killed out here from nocturnal creatures such as..." He paused, seemingly shuttering at the memory of the Smoky Bulblax. "Ah...well. Anyhow, thankfully there doesn't seem to be anything dangerous around at the moment! We should hurry back."

Louie nodded. Olimar began to walk ahead, as he followed behind him. He stopped shortly after, however.

"There is...one thing, though." The shorter said, his back still to Louie.

'Hm?'

"Well, you kept...whispering things. In your sleep."

'W-What kind of things?'

"Well," Olimar pressed a finger to his mouth, "It was...strange. You had been repeating words like 'consume', and 'devour', 'food'...I'm sure it was just some dream you were having, though. Some sleep-induced nonsense." Olimar laughed shortly. Louie nodded unsurely, frowning. "Regardless, it was quite unsettling. You had me scared for a moment there!" The short captain started walking again shortly after.

"Let's just go back."

Louie made a short sound, decidedly trailing behind him.

He sort of zoned out on the walk back to the cave, but when he keyed back in they seemed to be back already.

He stood still, quite a bit further behind, as he watched Olimar enter the cave.

He thought he heard a sound and turned around one last time. When he looked out into the trees, past all of the rock, the tall bush...

He seen bugs looking at him from afar. Just watching him, not doing anything, not moving. He could see their bright eyes staring at him...

"Louie? You coming?"

He turned back to Olimar and nodded.

He walked into the cave, his eyes still glued to the insects that were off to the side as he moved.

* * *

"It was a good thing nothing tried to ravage us at this hour", Olimar sighed, sitting back. He seemed to be focused on all of the sleeping Pikmin, laying off to the side in a small pile. "I don't know what we would do if there was another attack. In this state I don't think we'd be able to take even a smaller creature on." Louie nodded, standing still, his eyes not really focused on anything. Olimar sat up and frowned. "And as much as I would like to just keep moving forward in our search, I feel it may be wise for us to figure out what...in our new 'forms' I guess, we are able to accomplish."

Louie sunk down to the ground, wrapping his arms around his legs. He looked at Olimar.

'You mean...like...finding out what powers we have?' He gulped at the thought.

"Yes, I do." Louie noticed the book he had under his arm, that he had now taken out and opened. He seemed to be focused on a single page. "With what happened today, I've concluded that knowing what we are able to do may be incredibly helpful with any dangers that lay ahead. It may even be necessary for our survival at this point. With the close call we had today..." He paused, looking away solemnly.

"...And about that, I still need to know what happened earlier." Louie felt a pang of anxiety.

'...'

"Your new power might end up saving us countless hours-"

'I-I don't think...' Louie furrowed his brow, looking away. There was a long silence. Louie could feel Olimar looking at him.

"Louie..." He spoke so soothingly. "You have to tell me what's wrong. You've been off all night..."

He didn't say anything, he just kept looking away. Olimar frowned. He had thought they were doing pretty good, better than they ever had been doing. Beginning to become proper friends. Now, he wasn't so sure. It felt like they just were back at the start again.

"...Is it about your new power?" The shorter noticed a change on his face for a second, and figured that had to be the root of the problem. "Did it hurt for you to use? Did you get hurt somehow? Is there an injury that you're hiding?"

'...What?'

"You seem like you're in pain." Louie shook his head shortly.

'N-No, I'm fine.' Olimar crossed his arms.

"You keep saying that..."

'Saying what?'

"That you're fine. I'm not dense, I can tell something's wrong." Louie dropped his head into his lap, blocking his face.

'I d-don't...' He paused.

"...You don't what?"

'I don't want to do it again..." He went quiet. Olimar waited for him to say something else, but he didn't.

"Don't want to do it again?" He asked. Louie still didn't say anything.

He waited...

Then, he heard a sound.

A small snore.

Louie had fallen asleep.

Olimar sighed, figuring he's been through enough today and that he could just ask him tomorrow. He watched him for a second, hoping deep down that he wouldn't start sleep walking again.

Olimar laid back after a while. He decided to go back to sleep as well, figuring he could still get a couple of hours in before daytime.

Still, his endless search for answers ate away at the back of his mind. He wished Louie would be more open with him sometimes.

He slipped off into sleep, hoping tomorrow would be better than the disaster today had been.

 


	5. Faded

It was hotter out today than it had been yesterday. A significant change in the weather had seemingly taken place sometime in the night.

It was something Louie had come to notice since they had arrived on this world: the climate of the Pikmin planet shifted in much different ways than it did on back on Hocotate. No, when you were on this planet, the world seemed to shift and alter, go through so many more changes so much more often. When you walked long enough in one direction, you would be met with different climates, hotter and colder climates.

The regulation function in their suits, which had once worked albeit poorly, no longer seemed to work at all. In the past, it had shielded the explorers from the heat and cold at least minorly; that seemed to no longer be the case. In fact, with the life-support systems down, Louie was sure that there was a lot of other things that probably no longer worked as well.

Maybe it was the heat talking, but he wondered if their suits had a use any more. Should they even keep wearing them? In this heat it seemed to him a bad move to keep them on.

He looked over to Olimar. He was still very much asleep, laying off to the side rather peacefully. The remaining Pikmin had taken to laying at his sides. Louie figured he must be up pretty early right now if his early bird superior was still out.

_Wonder what he's dreaming about_ , Louie thought to himself. Probably life back home, that seemed to be all he ever really talked about.

Eventually he just couldn't stand how hot it was and opted to take his suit off. What was it doing for him now anyway? He unziped it down the centre, then went to shake his left arm out. After some struggling he managed to free his upper half, deciding to just step out of the rest.

He basked in the fact his skin could actually breath after days of air-tight exposure. That after days he could finally wear his looser under clothes.

...But something was off.

He heard audibly when his captain gasped. When he went to turn to look at him, he already knew the reason why he had.

"Your arms..." What was visible of his arms was dark, abnormally so. Not the pale colour of his face, the tone of his skin. His arms were covered in black patches, a colour that extended to his hands. His fingers... were different; all five still present but they were black, slim, pointed...

Shaped a bit like a Pikmin's.

He had no idea that the change went that  _far_.

At the expression he sees on Olimar's face, he's guessing he didn't know either.

Louie noticed as Olimar seemed to frown, turning around now seemingly lost in thought. He looked pale, almost like he was going to be sick for a short moment.

Overwhelmed.

He had absently walked over to the Pikmin, calling them to follow him. They even seemed worried.

"I'm gonna..." He turned to look at Louie briefly but then looked ahead. He didn't say anything else, he just left the cave; Louie figured to try to increase their Pikmin count.

* * *

**Upon closer examination, the Pikmin-Hocotatian's skin is a slurry of the plant-like properties of Pikmin skin, and the flesh-like properties of a Hocotatian's. In both known cases of the hybrid, they have colour of a black Pikmin, perhaps appearing as such due to a combination of all pigments. This is still the case even when both subjects had undergone transformation through the Red Pikmin Onion, the Onion seemed to have no hand in determining colour or ability outcome. More information needed.**

Olimar sighed. He closed his journal as he heard the sound of the last pellet being sucked into the red Pikmin Onion. He stood up and brushed himself off. It was a good thing that the Onion that they had in the first cave had somehow followed them to their new location. He wasn't sure what they would do if it hadn't, how they would get their numbers back up...

He plucked each individual sprout, ignoring the slight shoulder pain he felt oncoming from many work-filled days. When he had finished, he turned to look at the new group they could now work with, watching for a moment as the new Pikmin seemed to be being greeted and directed by the remaining battle-damaged ones.

He lifted a gloved finger and counted.

41 reds, 4 yellows, 3 blues, 1 white, 2 purples...

Admittedly, it wasn't much. Being limited to only one Onion may well proove troublesome if obstacles required other Pikmin types.

He wouldn't dwell on it right now. Right now, he was just determined to find Louie and tell him they would be heading out again soon.

He called for the Pikmin to follow behind him as he began to walk back to the cave.

As soon as Olimar had reached the cave entrance, he had spotted Louie. He was further off and inwards, further into the dark, sitting on the ground with his back turned to where Olimar stood. It seemed he had put his suit back on. Olimar stopped.

"We're going to get going," Olimar called, gesturing to the outside slightly. Louie didn't move. Olimar walked forward.

"Hey!" The short captain tried speaking a bit louder. He waited for a moment. Louie still didn't move. Olimar groaned, quickly whispering to the Pikmin to stay, as he began walking closer.

"Hey!" He called again.

Nothing.

"We're heading out!"

Nothing.

"Are you even listening-"

Louie turned around quickly, Olimar jumping at the suddenness. The captain yelped.

Louie's eyes were freakish-had that strange glowing white quality to them again-and it felt as if they shook Olimar to his very core. It made him shiver, tense and freeze up.

"L-Louie?" Up at this close proximity, he could now see a rather small dwarf bulborb that seemed to be a bit further ahead; what Louie had been focused on it appeared, it's eyes were gleaming white as well.

After a while, Louie seemed to shake his head, knocking himself out of it, the white faded and his eyes seemed to go back to normal. The small bulborb made a sudden distressed sound, and they both turned just in time to watch it scamper away in fear from them, rushing off into the cave.

Louie held his head for a moment and then shakily stood up. Olimar just stared at him.

"You...did it again? I thought you said-" Louie shook his head.

'I-I changed my mind...' Olimar looked on in confusion. He didn't understand.

'I...', Louie paused, looking away. Truth be told he wanted to say so much in that moment. So many sentences were playing out in his head, so much he just wanted to talk about, to tell-

'I just...want to help.' There was a sense that that wasn't what wanted to be said again. Olimar found that tended to happen a lot with Louie. He waited a while as if to see if Louie was going to say anything else. He didn't.

Regardless, the captain nodded.

"It's your choice."

* * *

They had left and went off earlier than they ever had previously. The world's pale moon was still quite visible in the sky, the sun was up but it wasn't yet very bright out. The grass was wet with dew and the air was thick with humidity.

It seemed that Louie had, at one point, taken the lead on this expedition. It was the first time in weeks that Olimar found himself following behind another rather than leading; he felt himself somewhat wanting to step forward, but decided that might be a very bad idea. He wouldn't want to get stuck in the crossfire of Louie's new powers, what effects it would have on him or the Pikmin were still unknown.

No, Olimar would make it his job today to ensure that Louie was just heading in the right direction, to protect the Pikmin that they had in tow as well.

Make sure Louie's back would be covered when he did 'his thing' he guessed.

Honestly, he wasn't sure this would even work.

He was really hoping it would though when suddenly he had been stopped in his tracks by Louie to a unwelcoming sight. Standing but a short distance from their group was a very awake bulbear, staring down at each and every one of them hungrily. Olimar cursed his poor observation, he hadn't even seen it! The short captain quickly grabbed the stem of any nearby Pikmin he could get a grip on, right about to toss it and get ready for a fight-

But then seen a fight was unnecessary. It was over in a second. The large insect dropped to the ground suddenly, entirely knocked from consciousness. The captain dropped the Pikmin and stared ahead, dazed. He watched as Louie kept moving on his own shortly. He stood still and watched as he walked a little bit ahead of everyone.

Suddenly, Louie turned around though, and looked at him and the Pikmin.

'You coming?' Olimar nodded suddenly, calling the rest of the group shortly and rushing to follow behind.

Olimar felt a strong feeling of hope suddenly overtake him. He began to wonder if they really would be able to make it in time now, thinking that this new development with Louie's hold on insects may very well set them back by several hours and several casualties.

Maybe the rest of their trip would actually be easy?

He revelled in the thought, thinking about how wonderful it would be...

He walked with a new sense of determination.

* * *

Today may very well be a better day than yesterday.

Not a single Pikmin had been lost in the span of eight hours. Olimar thought that it had to be a new record or something, he was unable to remember a time when an excursion had gone this well.

Sure, there had been a few close calls-a fiery blowhog had even nearly lit every single one of them on fire(Olimar was still feeling giddy at the fact he was now apparently impervious to the high levels of heat of it's flames)-but they had been nothing but just that: close calls.

The short captain would be lying if he said it wasn't actually a bit of a boring day, uneventful really, and with nobody but the Pikmin to talk to it seemed. At least he could take solace in the fact he had learned a bit more about them.

Louie hadn't said a word in a long while. Olimar had thought that maybe it required a lot of concentration and focus to stun such a large amount of huge creatures. Maybe talking would throw him off? Whatever he was doing it seemed to be working, so he wasn't about to bother him about it.

But suddenly, Olimar had noticed that his second in command did start to vocalize a little bit. Something, he wasn't sure what, had gone whispered by the taller Hocotatian under his breath. Talking to himself? Louie did do it at times, but it seemed a little different then.

Now, it was a bit more frequent.

He wouldn't linger on it though, because suddenly he heard the squealing call of a Pikmin from his right, and turned only in time to watch as a distant yellow had been taken away by a long, gangly arm. He watched in annoyance as a snitchbug flew by them swiftly, only to float in the air ahead of them briefly before it's eyes became white and it succumb to crashing downwards.

Olimar walked forward to go and pluck the yellow that was now replanted, walking around Louie. The Pikmin made a joyous little sound and went to follow with the rest. He heard the feet of several of them shift over behind him, and a sudden mass of confused sounds. Olimar's ears perked up as he subconsciously wanted to hear what they had said.

He heard: 'weird', 'wrong', 'what?', 'eyes', 'crescent-head', 'sick?' and eventually there were too many of the Pikmin talking at once and it got to be too overwhelming.

There was that phrase again: 'crescent-head'. He knew they were talking about Louie again, and as he began to walk back, he noticed they had all seemed to have formed a circle around him. He walked over and suddenly what the Pikmin were saying was clicking into place.

Louie was standing there, frozen. His eyes were that terrifying white as he seemed to stare ahead unfocused. His mouth seemed to be moving and forming words, but the Pikmin's sounds seemed to drown out anything he had been saying. His skin looked as if it was clammy, and he did look rather 'sick' as one of the Pikmin had said.

Olimar was overcome with worry. He gently moved some of the Pikmin aside in order to step forward.

"Hey, are you okay...?" Louie didn't respond, he seemed to just keep doing what he was doing. Olimar decided to try lightly shaking him to knock him out of it. "Louie?"

He stood there blankly, but he heard him say something a little louder. Olimar still couldn't hear him though.

"What...?"

'Food.' Olimar looked at him in confusion.

"Food?" Louie's eyes shifted to look directly at him.

' **FOOD**.' Olimar had no time to think as he was roughly shoved back into the ground. He watched from his spot as the large group of Pikmin began to rush away, squealing fearfully, but as one had been caught and picked up by Louie. He watched as he stared at it with hunger, opening his mouth with fully the intention of eating it whole. He heard as it clearly screamed 'help'.

He rushed forward, tackling Louie by the legs and seeing and feeling through the rough shake of the terrain as he was knocked to the ground. The Pikmin had escaped, they all had, and taken to cowering behind Olimar in fear. He turned to check on them all, then the one that had nearly been eaten. It seemed to be okay, aside from a small bite mark on it's leaf and bit more fear than even the others. He turned back to Louie.

"Louie, what are you doing?!"

Louie was laying on the ground, looking to be hurt from the fall. His eyes were still white. He was squirming around a bit, fidgeting. He seemed to be whispering to himself again, but Olimar couldn't make sense of any of it.

He was scared. Louie seemed to be doing just fine a second ago, what had come over him?

Olimar looked around worriedly. It was getting a bit dark, with Louie down for the count he would have to take matters into his own hands or they would never find shelter. The calls of further off creatures sounded; perhaps all of the insects Louie had knocked out had been following them. It alerted Olimar that he had to keep moving.

"We need to carry him," Olimar spoke to the Pikmin. Many had seemed to rapidly shake their heads. He sighed. "He's very sick." All the Pikmin seemed to look at one another, as if contemplating if they should.

The red Pikmin with the flower had stepped forward unquestioningly, going to start in the efforts. When the one with the bite mark had been the next to go, a lot of them were incredibly surprised. Hesitantly, a few of the others seemed to follow. Olimar nodded to all of them. Their loyalty seemed to have no bounds.

He turned to look at Louie for a minute, propped up by tiny arms, his eyes still whited out...

"What is going on with you...," he whispered lowly.

He turned to look ahead, deciding that he would have more time to wonder and try to help him once they were safe.

Luckily, there was a cave he had been eyeing further up ahead that they could stay the night in. It would be retiring rather early-not too early though- but with the progress they had made Olimar really couldn't complain.

* * *

When they had arrived, it seemed just in time. From outside of the cave, the short captain could spot the occasional familiar insect, insects that Louie incapacitated through the day, looking in to watch them in frustration. Olimar almost wanted to tell them to go away, even though that would probably go without results.

The insect's pursuit of them never seemed to end.

Olimar called for the Pikmin to place Louie down gently, and they all seemed to back away quickly once they had.

He was still squirming as he was placed on the ground. His face was flushed, he was sweating intensely and when Olimar went to touch his face he felt warm and sweaty. Shifting his hand to his forehead, however, it seemed he had a fever. Strange...

His eyes seemed to still be whited over, empty and even 'steaming' now slightly. He wasn't sure what to make of that. Olimar decided to unzip Louie's suit part-way, to feel for his heartbeat. It only took a second, as it was incredibly fast-paced. At least he still seemed to be alive.

'Food...,' He spoke much more weakly than he had before, Olimar noticed.

"I know...," Olimar replied soothingly. He had been repeating the word 'food' the whole way to the cave. It made Olimar wonder if he should cook the poor guy something, even with his somewhat lacklustre cooking skills.

He  _had_  learned a bit about cooking through his years, some things from Louie, but only a little.

Olimar walked a little bit off to the side, Louie's eyes seemingly trailing him, and tore off and grabbed some of the large leaves that sprouted off a nearby plant. He walked back over and crouched to gently lifted Louie's head, placing the leaves folded on the ground under before setting him back down.

"Little better?" He asked somewhat to himself. At least that seemed a bit more comfortable than just laying on rocks.

'Food...'

"Yeah, yeah..." Olimar got up and decided he should probably go scavenge for something to eat. He wasn't keen on his ability to cook something good enough for their palate, and decided to maybe just find some nectar...

**Today, we have travelled a great distance. I owe it all to the help of my partner Louie, Louie who now shares my similar fate, and now seems to have now gone into a strange state of which I am now fearing for his well-being. We are so close now: the scenery has started to look familiar to me. It is a very good sign, I just hope we are not too late...**

**-Olimar**

 


	6. Parasite

With the remaining daylight still in tow and the pursuing creatures having apparently retreated, Olimar decided -with the time that remained-to step outside from their shelter one last time for the day. Looking out into the rocks and the foliage, the flowers and the tall bushes, it was very apparent that where they were was now near the Wistful Wild, the colours of reds and oranges in the distance, the cooler air...

It was relieving. Soon enough he would know the area enough that going off his shoddy map would be but a thing of the past.

They would be exiting-what he had deemed-the Unforgiving Woodland.

It was nearing the moment of truth, not far from here would be or wouldn't be the Hocotate ship, departed or stationed, the promise to go back home or the curse of being stuck there...

A huge part of it was him just wishing the journey would not be for naught. That their travel would mean something. That the several Pikmin deaths would be for something. That they would pull through it all and somehow become their old selves again and this would be just some crazy story to tell people at family or company dinner parties...

Every ounce of his being wanted to be able to go back home, to go home and bring Louie with him for the ride. As much as he wanted to go home he wanted Louie to go home just as much. That had been the plan initially coming back here, that and searching for more treasure but...

Treasure no longer even mattered to him any more. Treasure was something he always found himself get eager over, it was something it seemed he was passionate and never tired to search for, something he would think about quite a lot, but it just didn't seem to matter any more.

The only thing he wanted now was to go home.

He felt a fool for only thinking such a great deal about how important home was in only the times he wasn't there.

It was a crazy thought, but he briefly wondered if maybe this was just what he needed: time to take a proper outlook on his life. Maybe this would be the universe giving him this situation but only to have him learn, come out of this okay but with a lesson under his belt.

He shook away the thought as quickly as it came though. Although he did believe instances of fate, thinking that something could be laid out so incredibly and intricately may as well just be wishful thinking.

Wishful thinking was a promising thing to have in dire situations, though. It bestowed a sense of hope. Hope was incredibly valuable when you had little else. They had nothing.

The red-flowered captain shortly realized he had been standing still for quite a while: his mind wandering off as quickly as the wind now blew through the turning leaves. The promise of the oncoming terrors of night had shaken him to decidedly retrieve some food.

Olimar quickly grabbed an assortment of several different things: pellets, eggs that were filled with nectar, a few edible plants...

With his arms eventually full he retreated back to protective rock walls, leaving the sounds of nature and arriving to the sounds of Pikmin coos and familiar quiet muttering. He figured it was going to be a long night.

* * *

Somewhere along the line he had lost track of time. It was late, it was pitch black outside the cave, and through it all he had never really left Louie's side. He had gotten him food, more and more and more food, but despite all efforts Olimar found he would always just ask and plead for more. It was as if he couldn't do anything on his own; it reminded of him when his kids were just babies: when they would spend most of their time on their backs, laying there or sleeping. It was like he needed him to do everything for him...

His guessed it was fatherly instincts that were probably just making him think like that, thinking of him like a kid. He found himself getting sentimental pretty often as of late and-in his opinion- it certainly wasn't helping anything.

Through it all, he had guessed one promising thing had been that Louie seemed to be getting better.

_Seemed_  to be.

It felt almost impossible to tell.

He mostly wondered how this had even happened to him. He began to wonder if this was his fault in the end for making him take on all of those bugs. Maybe this was him reaching his limits. With all of the crazy things they encountered today, well, of course it would probably be too much for him to handle...

Exhaustion? A side-effect? He seemed absent of independent thought, all he could do by himself seemed to be writhe around on the floor and eat whatever he was given. When touching his head, it was apparent his fever seemed to have gone down, and he seemed to have calmed significantly. He was almost getting still even. Maybe he was getting tired?

He felt like he himself was getting pretty tired...

The short captain yawned.

His eyes were getting heavy, his head began to sink, and soon enough he would find himself dozing off softly to his friend's quiet ramblings...

* * *

It happened sometime during the time one of the larger Bulborbs had showed up.

His head ached, he knew he had to keep using his ability to avoid any oncoming bugs, but his head  _ached_. Wow, did it ever start to  _hurt_. It got to the point that it got worse every time another one fell, he experienced those angry voices that would ring in his head. Those horrifying words. Those ravenous thoughts. That buzzing sound was starting up again, always ringing in his ears like a bad migraine. He felt himself starting to zone out-more than usual- his mind seemingly trying to escape the pain his body started experiencing.

Then, it felt like he was almost fading from where he was, going to some other place further away. Close but far. It got to the point where it was a strange split between two existences, as if he was suddenly stuck between two consciousnesses: his own and some other one he couldn't fully comprehend, but that was somehow familiar. It felt like when he had been asleep before, that dream he had out in the forest, but he was clearly still awake right now.

He somehow kept going, leading ahead and taking down more and more bugs. But each one just led him closer to that strange other consciousness, the consciousness somewhere else entirely. Eventually, his normal conscious self seemed to slip away entirely. He didn't even realize it until it had been too late.

This time, he was in a dark dark cave, a cave that normally he would likely be unable to see in; he would normally fall victim to a lack of night vision. That wasn't the case though. He could see, see through eyes that didn't feel like they belonged to him, but to something else entirely. It was as if he was staring through the eyes of someone else, some creature, only able to watch and unable to move.

It felt almost the same as before but he couldn't  _move_.

He watched as its eyes locked onto a group of Pikmin, all helplessly wandering through the dark. He could suddenly feel thoughts of its insatiable hunger, feel its jaw as it hinged open, and feel as it stepped forward...

Louie wanted to scream, wanted to look away as it devoured the helpless and scared Pikmin. In his head he was wishing that it would be over, that he could look away; over and over again he wished for it to just stop-

And it did.

The creature seemed to stop after a second, seemingly alerted by something. It looks around frantically, but there's nothing else to be seen around it. There's a long pause where it doesn't move at all, it just stays still...

Suddenly, he could feel something else ringing in the creature's head, which seems to drill into his thoughts loudly and directly.

What it had noticed was  _him_.

-YOU, PARASITE-

He hears a voice, a loud, shrill voice that fills him with fear.

-TRYING TO BEAT ME AT MY OWN GAME-

He hears a loud sound ringing in his head.

-WHERE ARE YOU LITTLE PARASITE-

Its eyes dart all around.

-I WILL FIND YOU-

It stops. It suddenly starts to feel like something is trying to  _burrow_  its way into his head.

-I SEE YOU HAVE SOME LITTLE FRIENDS WITH YOU-

No...

-I'M GOING TO FIND YOU-

No...!

-I WILL DEVOUR EVERY ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS-

In a sharp jolt he could see through his own eyes now, just in time to watch as he pushes Olimar to the ground. He tries to stop himself, to take control but something is stopping him, it's too _strong_ \- He watches as his own hand picks up one of the Pikmin, going to raise it to his mouth-

Olimar tackles him down to the ground.

There's a jolt. Then, a loud and monstrous screech ringing in his mind that sounds like a freakish and pained wail. He doesn't have time to think about what might be happening because he suddenly realizes that whatever was stopping or  _controlling_  him is now caught off guard and he takes this chance to try and fight it...

* * *

Olimar felt as if his heart nearly jumped out of his chest. He jolts up, awakened by the sound of what could only be identified as screaming, loud screaming. He turns quickly from his place on the ground-not quite sure of how he had come to be laying on the ground but thinking he must've fallen asleep- to look to the source and can't help but be incredibly surprised.

Louie is suddenly up. He's actually  _up_. His eyes are wide but noticeably not whited over any more, but they're normal. He seems to be the source of the alarming sound.

"Louie!" Olimar calls. He quickly goes to place his hands on his distressed partner's shoulders, who seems to sink away in fear. "Louie, it's okay! It's me!" He shakes him a few times, which seems to actually work because he slowly stops vocalizing but-in turn-he's now somewhat distressfully hyperventilating. He stares at him widely. After a minute he seems to calm down when he actually realizes that it's Olimar and he's okay-

"You had a close call," the short captain explains. He goes to place his hand on his back, as Louie sits there trying to regulate his breathing. Olimar could feel him trembling. "But I managed to make it to a cave before dark so we're safe. Don't worry," Olimar soothes.

Louie is very confused.  _Close call?_

He's trying to think back but so many thoughts are running in his head and everything is just a blur, his memory is failing him-

He becomes overwhelmed suddenly, begins to rock back and forth slowly and feels anguish fall over him when he thinks back-

'...Please...please don't make me do it again...,' he whispers. Olimar rubs his back. 'I d-don't...I don't...'

"Ssshhh, it's okay..." He sits beside him in silence for a while, the only thing to be heard is his shaky breathing.

'Th-They keep talking to me, telling me to do these terrible things...' Olimar cocks his head to look at Louie with strong concern.

"Who keeps talking to you?" Louie wraps his arms around his legs tightly.

'...The bugs,' he hiccups. Olimar is suddenly very surprised.

"You can speak to them? The insects?" Louie shakes his head quickly.

'No, I can j-just... _hear_  them,' Louie explains. He pauses. '...But in my head.' Olimar places a finger to his mouth in thought, running over these words in his mind for a moment.

"So...their thoughts?" Louie stares at him for a second, then hesitantly nods. "...I see." There's a long pause. The taller darts his eyes to the sidelines avoidingly. He's wondering what Olimar could be thinking about, what he must think of  _him_...

There's a painfully awkward silence.

'...There's...', Louie clears his throat, 'There's something out there.' He directs his gaze to outside the cave entrance. He could feel as Olimar's eyes are fixed on him. '...Something's near here. Something bad.'

"...Did it communicate with you?" Louie looks back at him and nodded.

'It says...that it's going find and kill us.' Olimar scoffs, going to cross his arms. Louie can't help but be a little surprised at his reaction.

"Of course it did." Louie rests his head against his propped up knees.

'It...it called me...a  _parasite_.' Olimar's face softens at the saddened tone Louie uses, his arms drop back down to his sides. Then, he goes to rub at the nape of his neck anxiously.

"...The way the term is used can mean a number of different things, Louie," Olimar explains, attempting to cheer him up. He doesn't seem to be listening in that moment though. "...Don't take what a ravenous insect has to say...or think rather...to mind. It was probably just trying to get to you." Louie laughs half-heartedly.

'...Well, if that's it's goal it succeeded I guess.' Olimar smiles, waving a hand dismissively.

"Nah." Louie smiles and hugs his legs tighter.

'...You must think I'm pretty weird, huh?' Olimar is a bit thrown off by the question, but Louie seems to be looking at him for an answer.

"...Why do you say that?" The blond pauses for a long time. He suddenly shrugs.

'I guess with all this stuff that's been happening lately, I would probably think that if I were you.' Olimar chuckles lightly.

"So you're saying that you think I'm weird?"

'...W-What? No.' Louie looks at him, suddenly confused.

"Well, considering that half of the strange stuff that has happened can be rightfully deemed my half...I mean, there's honestly not very many things that make me very different from you-"

'Please just answer the question...'

"I've always thought you were weird," he confesses. Louie gives him a look, partially offended.

'Wow, thanks,' he replies sarcastically.

"Why should that matter though?" Louie looks away. "In case you haven't noticed, there's little that can't be categorized 'weird' around here. The thing is, weird just works around here. It's good to be weird around here. Weird is normal on this planet." Louie goes to stare at him blankly.

'...When we were running away from that monster...the uh-'

"...The Smoky Bulblax?" Louie nods.

'You made this face...' Olimar goes to recount the events and frowns. Suddenly, it's clear to him why Louie had asked him what he had. The short captain sighs, feeling bad.

_He must be worried that I'm afraid of him._

"I'll admit, I still get thrown for a loop when I see things I at first don't understand...sometimes, I get quite fearful of the unknown," he explains, "You've just...surprised me a few times. That's all." Louie nods, looking somewhat more relieved.

'...Okay.'

"Look, you shouldn't worry if I think that you're 'weird' or not", Olimar continues, "What matters is that these skills that you have acquired are what make you so able to survive. Adapting to this strangeness...it's actually an asset. You should be really proud of what you can accomplish. All of these things are just what makes you who you are. In fact, it's always seemed to me like you get around much more easily around here than I might ever hope to." Olimar stops, suddenly going to scratch his head. "...I'm sorry, I've never been that great with words-"

'N-No. It's fine', Louie interjects, 'Some of the stuff you said was actually pretty touching.' Olimar grins.

"Really?" He presses a finger to his mouth, "Maybe I should take up a job writing greeting cards." Louie chuckles.

'Well...', he looks up, 'Seeing as there's no colourful cardboard or fancy pens or -well- _people_  around here, you're going to go out of work real soon.' Olimar's head suddenly drops, his face looking sadder.

"Hah...very true."

Silence. Louie's internally kicking himself. He didn't mean to remind him of home. The silence drags on for a long time, the taller wondering if he should say something to maybe change the subject.

'...Olimar-'

"Can I rely on you?" Louie's mind suddenly goes blank, trying to process what was said.

'…What?' Olimar appears to be looking at him now very seriously.

"If we're really trapped here, I need to know if I can rely on you to work with me", he states, "Can I?"

Louie stops for a second, thinking about it. He nods.

'...Of course you can.'

* * *

**My partner Louie seems returned from his state now, the terrible spell he had fallen under seems to be but in the past. For the rest of our trek we cannot risk having him use his ability once more...as there seems to be some rather problematic flaws and I fear it may be hazardous towards his well-being. He has managed to somehow establish a mental connection with a powerful creature, one of which promises the Pikmin's and my own death-**

He stops his hand. He looks down at the paper for a second before suddenly frowning.

He tears it out, roughly forming it into a ball before he throws it off into the dark. He sits for a while, feeling angry and stressed, before he sighs and stands to go and retrieve the sheet. Olimar unravels it and tucks it between a few of the pages somewhere.

He sits down. He tries to calm himself down momentarily before he picks up his pen once again.

**If somebody finds this, if anybody finds this...we are two explorers who are trapped on this planet. We are still alive. We are stranded and seek help in returning back to our home on Planet Hocotate.**

  


 


	7. Oasis

When Olimar woke up the first thing he registered was something poking at his arm. Part of him was actually thinking of just ignoring it, just turning over to the side and slipping back into sleep. Another part of him knew that would be a probably be a terrible idea. He groaned, still feeling very tired, and found himself wanting to keep sleeping. Regardless, whatever had been poking him was incredibly incessant. When whatever had been trying to wake him up began to try harder, he found himself unable to ignore it. He sat up.

Instantly it felt to Olimar like  _one of those days_.

He just knew it was going to be one of those days where you want to lay back and sleep the day away, but as much as he wanted a break he knew that today was also very important and was surely not one to sleep through- it was the final push. They were close, so there was really no time to rest right now, resting was for when they finally got on board the ship. When they fully and truly earned it. It had been a rough few days and it was really taking it's toll on the small captain; sleeping on the ground was pretty brutal, even if he had admittedly gotten somewhat used to it it didn't mean he wasn't still missing his bed.

He got up and stretched his aching self a bit, looking over at the red Pikmin with the flower, the culprit of his awakened state. It chirped the Pikmin equivalent of a 'good morning' to him and he wearily smiled, going to pat it on the head. He cleared his throat.

"Good morning...," Olimar yawned. His words came out coarsely, somewhat a jumble of regular speech and Pikmin speech through his tire. He watched as the red stared at him for a while, it's expression not really readable. He noticed it's hands had taken to being wrapped around his arm when it started to pull him excitedly, trying to get him off the ground.

"Okay, okay..." The Hocotatian was a bit taken by surprise by it's eagerness, but allowed the Pikmin to pull him to stand. As he now stood, he felt a head rush coming on, but didn't have time to think about it for long as the Pikmin started to pull him to walk with it. Olimar scratched his head.

"...Where are you trying to take me?" he asked. As reliable as Pikmin had been to him in the past, this little one's urgency still seemed at least a little unsettling. That, and they  _were_ walking further into the very potentially dangerous cave. Olimar wondered what it could want with him.

It cooed an answer, and the captain keyed in on the words 'big' and 'flower'.

"Big flower?" He didn't really understand. On this world there tended to be many large flowers as the foliage tended to grow to a rather large scale there. The Pikmin had seemed to pick up on his misunderstanding and touched it's unoccupied hand to it's face in thought, before it seemed struck by an idea.

The words that came out this time were 'queen' and then 'flower'. The captain pondered this.

"...You mean a Queen Candypop Bud?" The Pikmin began to nod happily, expressively pulling twice gently on Olimar's arm.

Olimar was suddenly very mirthful, he couldn't help but be happy at the news: with a Queen Candypop Bud, they would be able to raise their Pikmin numbers again, even if just minorly.

They walked further through the cave, Olimar looking all around the area constantly and remaining at watch as he let the Pikmin lead the way. It was surprisingly empty and calm in this area.

"...You're the red Pikmin from before, right?" Olimar spoke up. The Pikmin seemed focused ahead. "The one that had called me Olimar? The others all seem to call me by the name 'Pikmin Father', but not you." The Pikmin turned around to the short captain briefly and nodded, before turning back around.

"You seem to know a lot more terms and understand me a lot more than the others seem to. Is there a reason for that?" The Pikmin made a high squeaking sound.

'Here' 'since' 'start'. Olimar cocked his head.

"You've been here since the start?" He wasn't sure what it meant.

He picked up the next words: 'followed' 'after' 'Louie'.

"What do you mean?" He thought it to be an obvious statement as all the Pikmin had followed after Louie at some point.

It said 'Olimar' 'helmet' and 'smashed', but then repeated 'followed' 'after' 'Louie'.

It suddenly clicked to Olimar that the Pikmin must be from the previous group, the group he had taken into the Dream Den all those days ago. This red Pikmin was trying to say it had followed Louie all through the Wistful Wild and into the Unforgiving Woodland, it was around before this whole mess, it knew what had happened to him, it knew who he was before he was turned into a Pikmin, it was around before he became what he was...

In the back of his head, Olimar somehow thought he recognized this Pikmin from all those days ago. It was weird, there was nothing very distinctive about it but somehow he felt like he knew it to be true.

"I didn't know that...," Olimar paused, suddenly lost in thought, "...I guess I can rely on you to know what you're doing then, huh?"

He looked down to it, waiting for an answer but he can't help but be surprised when, abruptly, the red comes to a sudden halt.

The Pikmin didn't get the chance to respond, as they suddenly arrive at a clearing as well as the apparent destination the Pikmin envisioned.

Olimar can't help but gasp.

In front of his eyes is a miraculous sight.

The Pikmin wasn't lying when it said that there was a Queen CandyPop Bud, in fact, in his view now stands several of them, what could be said to be a sort of Candypop Bud gold mine; there's Queen Candypop Buds scattered  _everywhere_  and there's Ivory and Violet ones as well. The entire space is lit up as if it were outside rather than deep within rock, there's glowstems off to the sides as well as luminescent glowcaps, the whole area has this warm and welcoming feel that's oh-so inviting...

In the area are all of the Pikmin that they still had, a rather sparse amount-especially in variety- and as they enter the room the little guys are all greeting Olimar, calling to him, and they all seem very much awake. All of the Pikmin seemed to be rather ready for the day, a strange thought, as Olimar often found them to be sleeping in until he had been the one to call them out. There's spectralids all colour of the rainbow flapping through the air as Olimar spots some Pikmin happily eating nectar off to the right...

"This...is incredible."

It's a beautiful place that makes part of him wish they might stay for some time longer...

A thought crosses his mind, a thought that this may now all be do-able. He feels hope well up inside of him, hope that maybe they might be able to do this afterall. This place has bestowed him with a new sense of optimism. He decides that when or if he gets the chance to document this he will name this newly found place the Unanticipated Oasis, named as his lucky break in the harshest of times.

He smiled as he stepped forward, instantly feeling more awake than he had in probably a long time.

He had a lot of work to do, after all.

* * *

When Louie awoke it was in a bit of a panic. His experience with the insect: the insect that had threatened him and Olimar's life yesterday and deemed him a parasite, had unfortunately seemed to have left him with unsatisfactory sleep: rather harsh and nightmarish dreams had left him on edge.

He tried to calm himself down but he couldn't help but feel scared, shaky...

When awake he could at least relish in the fact that he knew they were only bad dreams, nothing more. He realized that lingering on it wouldn't do anyone any good.

There was also the relief that using his strange power wasn't something he would have to do any more, that he had gotten the whole 'side-effects for his power' thing off his chest but...

He felt like maybe he should keep trying it out? He wondered if maybe it was like many other talents: that it required practice to really get good at it. With what had happened the motivation to try it again was just about depleted but...

He wouldn't lie, part of him would like to try it again, if only to be more helpful to Olimar-

'Olimar?' Sudden realization hit Louie that he seen no sign of the other Pikmin-Hocotatian to be seen. He begun to look all over.

Said captain was nowhere to be found.

Looking into this further, the Pikmin were nowhere to be found either.

A sudden pang of worry rushes through him.

He worries that maybe just  _maybe_...

Had Olimar gone to look for the ship alone? Had he forgotten and left him behind again? He didn't think he would be able to take being alone again, especially right now. Not when he would be left with himself, left fearfully having to figure out fully what he  _was_  now and what he could do now and all by himself-

He hears a shuffling sound from outside the cave, and he turns to look quickly.

'Olimar-'

His eyes go wide at what he sees.

In his view isn't Olimar but several small bugs, strange looking brown bugs, looking to be at a larval stage of growth but of a species he can't recount ever seeing before. Their backs are turned to him, preoccupied it seems eating and swarming  _something_. He freezes, trying not to make any sudden movements so they won't notice him. He begins to back away slowly: although they are rather on the small side there are somewhere around thirty of them and not knowing their nature they could potentially be dangerous. He was clearly outnumbered-at the very least.

He stops as he steps on a twig, the small snap makes a cringe-worthy sound. They're all stopping and he could feel his pulse quicken. It feels like it's in slow motion when one turns to look at him, it's eyes shift and it's entire body turns. The others are quick to follow, each individual gaze shifting and directing right to where he is.

Louie gulps audibly.

What immediately puts him off are their eyes: they have eyes that are empty. Eyes that are white. He's put into a staring contest with the bugs, their gaze unyielding as he finds himself unable to look away in the fear they will attack him, that they will strike at any moment-

"Oh good, you're up!" Louie jumps a good centimetre. He turns around quickly to the voice, to be found looking at none other than Captain Olimar standing in front of him, and with what seems to be an incredibly large group of colourful Pikmin in tow.

_Oh thank the stars_

He feels relief, relief that he finds vanishing almost instantly, as he quickly remembers the insects that are outside and quickly jolts and he turns around-

"What are you looking at?"

Louie's surprised to find that they are no longer there; all of the insects seem to have vanished without a trace. He stares for a good minute, but there's no trace of them in sight. He turns back around to Olimar.

'...I,' he pauses, 'I just thought I seen something...' Olimar looks rather concerned.

"Oh." There's a heavy pause: the only noise some of the Pikmin that are playfully moving all around.

Louie can't help but go to stare. He had taken to directing his sights to the large hoard of Pikmin following behind Olimar and looks to be stunned.

'...How did you get so many...!?' Olimar laughs. He goes to pat one of the Pikmin standing next to him on the head.

"I had a little help."

* * *

The day began uphill. As in literal walking up a hill. Stepping out not far from the cave, the ground began to slope upwards; walking turned into a climbing act. The atmosphere seemed a lot different outside now- it almost felt like it was autumn, and they now found themselves surrounded by cooler air, trees with leaves of reds and oranges, earth below that became cool, the world consisting of primarily soft browns and a dull haze.

As they were reaching the top they could see the faint morning sun peaking over and out of clouds. They had stopped walking not long after they had reached flat ground, though, at a certain new development.

The first thing they see is a large wall.

A large stone gate, closing everything that could possibly be ahead in. It was something they had seen before, gotten used to seeing in fact, these barriers that are placed among the forests, looking fitting where they stood yet not at the same time. They were often built strong and out of stone, this one happened to be a deep grey colour. It was rather ominous, these structures, made a sense of wonder arise over this planet, wonder of if somebody really had been here, intelligent life perhaps, building these structures…

"Okay everyone," Olimar points straight out and forward, "Charge!"

He called the group to swarm the structure, the sounds of leaves, bulbs, and flowers clashing and smacking at rock was almost immediate, the vocalizing grunts of the Pikmin rising high. Expectantly, the wall was going down fast, all one hundred working at once, the foundation crumbled away in meer seconds.

As the dust clears away from the work, Olimar turns to Louie as he does the same. They both nod to one another, before Olimar decidedly steps forward to lead the group through the debris and onto the other side.

_No turning back now._

Olimar stops as he looks out into vast land ahead and Louie does shortly after. As they peer out they're both in awe.

Louie had never gotten to really see the Wistful Wild except for the moment briefly when he had fled away from it but for Olimar...

The view was certainly different from what he remembered.

It had only been a matter days since he had been there but the whole area had taken on a series of noticeable changes.

New walls had been erected.

Creatures that were taken down before were back once more, along with several enemies that hadn't even been there last time.

Several of these small brown insects travelled in something that could only be described as a  _swarm_. They travelled numerous, all in one group...

Even though Louie hadn't ever really been there, he was sure that something was definitely  _wrong_ with this picture. He turned to Olimar to ask him if this area had looked like this before but his suspicions were soon confirmed of this place. His superior's shocked expression at the display was the only answer he needed to know things were definitely off.

And looking out into the distance, there was  _something_...

A large, off-white mass.

It came in patches all around and it seemed to cover the entire area...

At the very core it surrounded the centre of the terrain, but looking closer is when they spotted something even more strange.

It was a round object.

An unknown object.

What was most noticeable was how big it was...

So sizeable, so large, such an incredible mass.

'Wh-What is that?!' Olimar didn't tear his eyes away once he had spotted it. He found that he really didn't have an answer. He didn't know what it was, all he knew was absolutely sure that he had never seen it there before. He looked ahead in disbelief.

It almost looked like...

_Webs_.

A huge tangled up mess of webs.

"I think...," he stopped, squinting his eyes further, "I think it might be a  _nest_."

He could almost feel Louie trembling. Maybe it was  _him_  that was trembling, he didn't know.

'A n-nest for  **WHAT**?!'

_Good question._

Olimar was really hoping they wouldn't find out. He really didn't want to find out. They both stared ahead.

'Okay, okay...,' Louie spoke, taking deep breathes, seeming to be trying to calm himself down, 'So there's that...but where is the Ship?'

Olimar felt his heart skip a beat. Realization flooded over him like a bucket of the coldest ice water.

_That area...it's..._

He realized that if the ship was still stationed here, if it hadn't left yet...

It would likely be somewhere in the  _centre_ of the nest.

 

 


	8. Nest

'Olimar?'

'Uh...Olimar?'

'Olimar where is the Ship...?'

* * *

It was quiet. The room was silent for hours, the low buzz of machines had been the only sound that had gone for a long while: hours and hours in fact.

Impatience had been building on, it seemed. These hours of absolute nothing had been eating away at one certain individual. Although... it was impatience that came from an unlikely source.

A machine.

A loud whirring began to sound suddenly, which had roused a lone alien from his thoughts.

-It's been days.- There was a pause as the Ship awaited a response. There was nothing.

-Mr. President, you haven't been eating. My sensors indicate your stomach contents are on the verge of being empty. I may be a machine that does not need nourishment myself but I know that you are in need of food in order to thrive.- There was still no response. Although thought to be an emotionless machine, The Ship seemed to be beginning to get desperate.

-...Your wife is very worried about you, Mr. President. The received E-mail count has officially reached the three digit mark.- The only response had been a low grunt, as he seemed to place his head down on the table he was sitting at.

-...Louie was a terrible loss, he was a dependable employee and I am very sorry that he is gone-

"We don't know for sure what happened to Olimar," The President finally spoke, facing up now "We just lost track of him. For all we know his life support could very well still be functioning-"

-There was shattered shards on the ground-, the Ship sounded, -My scanners link the clear substance's components to be definite Hocotatian-made material. It was from his helmet likely. Even if his life support still functioned he would likely succumb to poisonous oxygen intake.-

"..." His face dropped.

* * *

'…You're joking, right?' He realized he had been asked a question but he couldn't really process anything after that point. His mind had been reeling with the new revelation, so many thoughts were running and running…

Sometime after he had foregone the question and he had started walking, walking ahead silently, having zoned out entirely. Of course, the group of Pikmin had taken to following behind him, but honestly he was just in too far gone to realize this.

Louie followed behind cautiously, watching on worriedly. He was worried his captain might not be in a right frame of mind.

They had officially stepped foot into the Wistful Wild; he realized that anything could happen now-

'Look out!'

Olimar hardly processed the arms shoving him to the ground, he hadn't been focusing enough to see a boulder was even hurling towards him until Louie had shoved him out of the way. The Decorated Cannon Beetle squealed as it was just about to fire a second round; the clear destination in mind to crush all of them. Olimar would only have time to brace for impact...

But a sudden thud indicated that wouldn't be the case. Olimar opened his clenched eyes, just in time to watch the insect as it crashed to the earth.

Louie managed to use his power to knock it out.

The red captain turned just in time to see Louie look at him with a rather angry expression, something he found rather strange since he couldn't recall the emotion ever  _really_  find it's way onto the blond's face for all he's known him.

'What were you thinking?! You almost got crushed!' Olimar was briefly at a loss for words, still trying to get over what was happening.

"I'm sorry, I-"

'You should be sorry! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!'

Olimar didn't respond, he just looked down shamefully; he didn't know what he was thinking. Everything just felt to be all over the place.

Louie sighed. He rubbed the back of his head.

'L-Look, I get it: you don't know what's going on, I don't know what's going on either, we're both EXHAUSTED, but who cares? If there's even a chance that the Ship is in that mess don't you want to take it?' Olimar looked up.

"I…"

'Come on, where's the Captain Olimar I know? The one who's got an endless supply of courage, who's always thinking on his feet. Where did that guy go?' Louie smiled, 'We're so close, you're going to let some webs be the thing that stops you?'

"No..." Olimar stared ahead at said mass of webs in the distance. His hands balled into fists.

'I know it's hard but if there's one person I know that can do this: it's you.' Olimar nodded. He began walking ahead.

_He's right_ , Olimar thought to himself,  _We have been through a lot already..._

"Hey, Louie?"

'Hm?'

"Thanks."

He noticed the smile that showed on Louie's face as he turned around to lead ahead.

He couldn't help but think about how much Louie seemed to have changed from the quiet guy he knew him as before.

* * *

He seemed to focus on something else after a while. The Ship's optical receptors had picked up that he had been focused on something in his hold for a while now, his eyes seemed to stare blankly at whatever it was.

-What are you looking at, sir?- The President shook his head shortly.

'It's just this picture...,' he replied, placing the object down, 'I found it at his station. It's of Olimar's family...' The Ship didn't really understand. It processed this briefly.

-...Yes, Captain Olimar had made mention of his family before. There are several messages still being received from them-

'Why had I always been so hard on him...?,' he asked, 'On both of them...?' The Ship didn't give a response. It wasn't sure  _how_  to respond.

Suddenly, it's auditory perception had picked up quiet sobs.

* * *

It became a haste-filled experience, moving around the Wistful Wild. Instantly it was clear that the area was packed with bugs: they couldn't walk very long before they would find themselves in another and another and  _another_  fight...

First, they had been fighting an orange Bulborb that had been sleeping- it had been dangerously close to waking up before they had sneaked fully around it- but right before it had gone down, a bothersome Fiery Blowhog had showed up seemingly out of nowhere and started lighting everything and everyone on fire. Olimar had called a good portion of the group to follow behind Louie and go to a safe distance before leading with the red Pikmin to take it down; it didn't take long but they were all still frazzled and shaken by the random attack. Louie could vouch enough for all of them after in saying that not being immune to fire wasn't very fun.

They couldn't even catch a break before they found themselves being followed by-not just one- but  _TWO_  Gatling Groinks. At that point they decided the best means of action would be to first leave the devastating creature's lines of sight: taking on one could be hard enough as it was, so they hurried away from them and hid under the brush for a while before decidedly taking them down one at a time while the beast's backs were turned. At that point the two Pikmin-Hocotatians knew they would have to get further away from them lest the firing squad decide to get back up and start attacking them again, as they tended to.

One break they seemed to have caught, however, was when a large Breadbug that was doing it's rounds had hurriedly passed by them and decided to drag away the fallen Groinks to it's nest. The captains watched on briefly, watching the strange and wriggling creature, feeling somewhat relieved that they wouldn't have to deal with the Gatling Groinks as a surprise attack... but their luck seemed to end there when they had run into a group of something else entirely.

Those weird brown insects, the ones with the white eyes. They couldn't get a good look at them peering out into the area earlier, but now they could. They were the ones Louie had seen outside of the cave that morning.

What was strange was that they seemed to be swarming a fallen red Bulborb, consuming it as their sustenance.

"I've never seen this species before," Olimar said under his breath curiously. He had slight worry to his words: to be expected, as he was without knowledge of what they would be able to do if provoked.

'I did,' Louie replied. Olimar gave him a slight glance of disbelief. 'They were outside of the cave. A-At the time I thought I had just been seeing things but...' Olimar's eyes traced over all of them, as his brain went on auto-pilot trying to count just how many there were. With all their movements he lost track at around 31.

He decided to go to grab a purple Pikmin, his hand wrapped around the nearby stem, his arm slinging back and ready to throw. It seemed a decision made just in time too, as the insects seemed to have finished their lunch and taken to looking at their new company with blank white stares. It had put him off, seeing their eyes...something seemed off. It reminded him of-

The brown bugs all suddenly began to charge at them, screeching loudly, their mouths shuttering open and closed. Olimar hurriedly tossed the purple he was holding into the mass, watching as the impact caused several to land on their backs like a turtle on it's shell, unable to get up. He had sent the rest of the Pikmin to charge, and watched as they took the large group down relatively easily. Remarkably easily.

When the fight was finished, Olimar called the group back to their sides.

"Any casualties?" He turned to Louie who shook his head. "None at all?"

'There was a white that didn't make it in the Blowhog fire...' Olimar grimly nodded.

_So we're at 99 now_ , he thought. He couldn't help but think they were doing pretty well.

"Those small brown bugs though...", he spoke, pressing a finger to his mouth in thought, "Something felt...off." Louie nodded slowly.

'...Their eyes, right?' Olimar didn't reply, but Louie could tell that he hit the mark. He could see this look of unease befall his superior before he turned away.

"...Let's keep on moving."

* * *

-...There's a large entity closing in towards our location. I can't get a good read on it! Mr. President, we-

* * *

**We had encountered a new species of bug, one that travels commonly in numbers of 20-50 it appears. I will make note the resemblance to those of the Antenna Beetle, making it possible that these creatures are in fact in the Kettlebug family, possibly a form of larval stage. More research is required to determine it's true origination, however.**

Olimar had found a chance to write while he waited for Louie to finish the task of taking out the devices that were generating poisonous fumes, along with all of their white Pikmin they had in tow. Interestingly enough, Louie was found to be immune to the gases while Olimar had not been so lucky, still finding himself letting out a cough every once and a while from the less than grand experience of running into the jets earlier. His lungs still burned.

He flipped back to a previous page.

**Noteworthy: The blue flowered Pikmin-Hocotatian is immune to poison. The red is not.**

He thought it a rather strange thing, since poison immunity is a  _white_  Pikmin trait but Louie had a  _blue_  flower...

Things only seemed to be getting more confusing it seemed.

Olimar put his book away as he noticed Louie rushing back from his task and back to his side.

'I can practically see the entrance of the nest a bit further ahead now,' he spoke, letting out a sigh. Olimar nodded. He had been able to see it for the past few minutes as well. '...Are you okay? You breathed in a lot of that gas-'

"I'm fine," he coughed, walking on ahead, "Let's just get the rest of this over with."

* * *

**-DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!-**

* * *

The last push had been  _gruelling_.

Though not far from the entrance to the nest, they had faced an encumbering amount of enemies. There had been a Bulbear that had spotted them right off the bat, going to attack along with it's dwarf followers. It caused a rather great deal of strife, they had been running circles trying to get a good chance or a good angle to attack it, only able to really make any progress with this when Louie had taken to being a sort of bait, distracting it while Olimar threw. They managed to take it out, throwing the purples at it's back first, but they had ended with 11 casualties, bringing their count down to 88.

They rushed away from the fallen mass, knowing full well that it could probably get back up again in a matter of minutes, and had taken a turn down a rather empty-looking path. Walking further down this path, however, the found it to be anything but empty.

A large Snagret had poked it's feathery head out of the soil; Pikmin were then flying around and the captains were getting knocked back by the force. Olimar quickly called for them all to follow and they had really just decided to book it at that point, rushing away from the long-necked fiend's territory. There really was no reason to really fight it if it would be restricted to a certain area. Luckily they had managed this with every Pikmin still in tow.

A quick comment on how insane this was getting didn't even have time to be thought upon, as suddenly a sizeable grouping of Volatile Dweevils, those bomb rock carrying fiends, were spotted scurrying towards them from off to the side. Their eyes widened at the horrendous sight as they took to running for dear life, not even with a second glance, trying to distance themselves and bracing for the loud crash of explosions.

If they were in any of those blasts, they realized that would probably be game over for either of them. They kept running until each and every blast had gone off, kept running even after the sounds ended. They hid against a solid jutting wall of rock, backs against it, breath coming in heaves as they jumped at each continuous explosion. They stayed that way for minutes, waiting until they were absolutely safe from the exploding creatures.

Minutes passed until they finally could sigh a breath of relief.

After it all they just turned to one another, hands on their knees and suddenly feeling entirely out of breath.

Olimar jumped when Louie began to -strangely enough-laugh breathlessly. He couldn't help but look at his subordinate like he was crazy.

"What are you laughing about at a time like this?!" Louie couldn't help himself, he just kept laughing.

'This...this is INSANE!' He blurted out, wiping a tear from his eye. Olimar scoffed, folding his arms. After a second, though, he found that he couldn't help but start to laugh as well.

* * *

As they had kept getting closer and closer to the nest's entrance they found an intense increase in the small brown bugs: their white eyes were always gleaming in the dark. A revelation came to Olimar suddenly, a revelation of just where they must be right now.

_This must be **their**  nest, _he thought,  _The brown insect's nest...or perhaps their Queen's._

They were the only insects to be seen as they moved further towards the webs: it seemed almost as if the other types of bugs were even too afraid to go a certain distance towards this place, at one point the other enemies were just not around there any more.

And something else was strange around this area as well.

He had initially thought that his radar, along with many other functions that were built into his suit, had no longer worked. It was a perfectly normal assumption, as when the life support system was to shut down, many other features usually went along with it, it was just how the suit seemed to work. But low and behold, not long after other insects stopped showing up he found that gauge that he had often looked to for treasure hunting had seemed to be going off.

Not just going off either, but going frantic. Malfunctioning. In fact, it had reminded him of how it used to go off around an Antenna Beetle.

Then, suddenly, the count of brown bugs had reached into the hundred mark, the two hundred mark; swarms and swarms began popping out, all suddenly seeming to have a sudden want to attack them, and all at once. The two captains began tossing and charging their Pikmin group, all the bugs were then dispatched quickly and all left no corpses. No casualties even, nothing, nothing but the strange feeling of unease was left of their presence.

They fought groups of them for what seemed like minutes...

But suddenly, strangely enough they just stopped coming. They just stopped attacking.

The two Hocotatians suddenly came upon the realization that they were now standing in front of the entrance to the nest. They hadn't even realized they had made it there, they were too focused on all the brown insects, but there they were now...

They were peering into eerie darkness ahead, wondering what might lie inside. The Ship? These insect's Queen? They did not know.

 


	9. Light

The treasure gauge had suddenly stopped. As they now stood in front of the entrance to purely -what was to them-the unknown, there was now a very apparent dead silence. Not the rings of the gauge, not the previous scurrying of hundreds of tiny brown insects, not even the wind was blowing here.

The world, in just this moment, was silent.

They could only hear their heartbeats in their own chests, the breathing of their own lungs...

Instantly there was a feeling of unease that filled the both of them.

Louie, specifically, noticed instantly that-looking around- something about this place felt  _wrong_ , unnatural even.

For one thing: waltzing in was just about the only option that they really had.

With the promise of nightfall, a quick inspection revealing that the creatures of the area having blocked off all exits previously, the only visible entrance in through this very opening...needless to say there were very limited options for the two explorers.

Not to mention something about this whole situation felt to be like a set-up even. A trap. He had a terrible feeling about all of this; about this place particularly.

He wasn't entirely sure what it was but…It felt almost as if in this moment there was a more devious set of eyes that were watching them, stalking them, viewing their every move; but look as he did he could not see these eyes.

Just  _feel_  them.

He noticed out of the corner of his sight as Olimar's vision shifted to look at him, as if to gauge his reaction of this place, to see his own expressions. He tended to have a greater sense for these types of things, he wondered if Olimar couldn't feel what he could right now? This unease? Maybe he could but he was looking at him to see if he could too...?

"No turning back now..." And Louie realized it was true, too. With going back the way they did there were all of those insects from before still there, all waiting for them; waiting in their vast numbers, all cut off by that same intangible border that seemed to eerily surround this place.

He had a sinking feeling that maybe the beast's intentions may have been luring them to this place all along, pushing them further towards this nest,  _their_  nest...

The thought made him shiver.

'Right...,' Louie nods. Olimar turns slightly towards him.

"I don't know what could be in there but..." Olimar trailed off, looking ahead and getting somewhat lost in all of the darkness, "...No matter what happens in there...,"Louie felt a hand go onto his shoulder, and he turned to look at its owner, "We'll still have each other, right?"

When Louie seen the hopeful smile on his superior's-no, his  _friend's_ \- face, he knew he would have to give him an answer; that verification was the one thing his captain could really use in such dire times as this. He also had a sudden realization of just how much he was asking of him. What he was  _really_  asking of him. How much of a possibility it could be that maybe they wouldn't make it was something he did not know. Maybe this would even be one or both of their ends...

He knew then that Olimar wanted him to stay with him if they couldn't go home.

He nodded.

'...Of course.' He knew for a fact that he would hate being trapped alone here just as much as Olimar would.

He knew more than anyone...for it had happened to him before.

"You just have to promise me one last thing." Louie frowned, turning to look at him now.

'...Yeah?'

"If I'm not able to make it through this but you are able to survive-"

'Olimar, please-'

"No, Louie I need you to promise me..." Olimar stressed, now holding onto both of the blond's shoulders, staring at him now, "That you will take that trip back to Hocotate if you can. Regardless of what happens if there's some way that you are able to get home, I want you take it without question."

'I can't promise that.' Louie looked down. Olimar looked to be a bit shocked.

"What-"

'...Not until you promise me the same thing.'

Olimar smiled.

"It's a deal then."

* * *

Each step felt utterly too loud. Each crunch of their boots on the indistinguishably covered ground echoed off web-covered walls, walls that seemed to dissolve along with their vision as they moved further into blackness.

Their eyesight was fading fast, accompanying this sense seemed to come all other senses as well: their scent, sense of feel...slowly it had all seemed to fade away.

The only thing that seemed to work entirely-work even arguably at an overdriven state-had been their hearing. As mentioned, this made everything feel utterly too loud right now.

'I can't see a thing...,' Olimar heard Louie's whispered complaint. He grunted lowly in agreement, focused instead with now trying to lead by feeling against the walls. It was hard to even tell where the walls began and ended anymore.

It was times like these that made a person wish for night vision.

"I can't either..." He stopped briefly, unsure of where to go. He squinted hopelessly, hoping that maybe if he tried hard enough maybe something would start to show up in his blackened vision. Sadly, this came unsuccessful-

Olimar found himself jumping when he felt Louie crash into his back suddenly. Unfortunately he couldn't react fast enough and only gained enough sense in time to feel himself ungracefully fall onto his bottom and onto the floor.

'S-Sorry...' He could see Louie's hands reaching out for his in an attempt to help him up-

Wait... _see?_

His eyes went wide as suddenly he could actually  _see_ , the cave didn't seem so dark anymore but instead seemed lit up by some source of rather bright light.

Olimar felt his heart drop as he feels the grip on Louie's hands faltering and winces as suddenly he's falling backwards and back to the ground again. He groans and gives Louie a somewhat annoyed look, rubbing his aching backside.

"Why did you drop me?!"

'...Sorry, sorry!' The blond scrambles to quickly help him up and off the ground, this time successfully, 'It's just your...your thing...!' Louie is pointing up above his head and Olimar gives him a rather incredulous look, but decides to listen and look at what he's pointing at.

He gasps.

Above his head, the red flower- _his_ red flower- that looms now seems to be  _glowing_ , glowing a strange red light, a light responsible for the sudden brightened-up interior. He can't help but stare warily at this oddity, mesmerized at the very least.

_...Bioluminescence perhaps? How very strange..._

A loud coo sounds and he turns to look suddenly at the Pikmin off to the sides, of which had taken to crowding around, their wide eyes all staring at the light with an amused stare.

Their reaction is suddenly putting him to mind of their helmet's beacon lights.

'H-How are you doing that?' Olimar dusts himself off and shakes his head.

"I'm not quite sure..." He hesitates a moment, his hand almost instinctively going to reach for his journal before he decides against it. Although it would likely be a good thing to write and record this abnormality down, Olimar realizes that they don't really have time to wonder about these types of things right now; they'll have all the time in the world when they're on their way back to Hocotate.

Right now, he'll have to push past this curiosity.

Because right now they have to get to the Ship.

"Come on, let's keep moving."

Louie is still as he watches Olimar keep moving ahead, shaken a bit by his captain's sheer dismissiveness; it was somewhat unlike him to not get at least a little curious about their new discoveries or abilities. When the crowd of Pikmin all seem to be moving ahead and around him-some even somewhat pushing their way past in the narrow passage way- to trail the bright red light, Louie decides to follow as well.

They keep walking.

* * *

It's hard to tell how long the corridor goes down. What's ahead is still too dark to see as well as what's behind them.

The silence, however, becomes painfully apparent and unpleasant in this unexplored 'cave'. Normally it would be something the younger could opt to ignore or even appreciate but something about it feels  _wrong_. Louie finds himself suddenly wanting to ease his mind of it.

'So, is there anything you learned about uh...'

"Hm?" Louie coughed.

'A-About our situations?'

There's a short pause before Louie could hear Olimar letting out a sigh. "Sadly, very little. Honestly you probably know equally as much as I do."

'Oh.' Louie looks around at the ceiling, at the walls, directing his gaze at the sheer magnitude of endless strands that -together- create this unspeakably large cavern-

"Very little about this place seems very promising…," Olimar said, a bit to himself. Louie turned to face ahead.

'Yeah?'

"For one thing, this tunnel doesn't even seem to be much of a tunnel at all." The taller frowned, unsure what the brunet meant.

'Hm?'

"I couldn't see it before-actually, I couldn't see anything before, it was too dark after all-"

'What do you mean?' He stares at Olimar's back as he sees the shorter direct his sight to the walls.

"The gouges on the wall," Olimar explains, "If they are to be any indication, these paths weren't built by the small insects we are familiar with but by something much larger." Louie is running his hand against the wall before it briefly gets caught in some webs, of which he quickly shakes free from. "Tiny insects such as the ones we had seen before can't create such marks on their own. I fear my theory of a larger entity may be coming true…"

Louie gulped. 'Th-The queen?'

"I'd hazard a guess-"

Olimar stops. Louie turns ahead, about to ask why they stopped moving until he notices what seems to have caught his superior's gaze.

They have arrived at what seems to be a large clearing; the tunnel system now pools into a wider, much more open-way room of sorts. Although, it is hard to see how big the room really is from the single red light of Olimar's flower, what's clear is that it is quite wide across, significantly more so than the tunnel.

Olimar quickly dismisses the group to walk ahead by himself slowly, looking around perhaps to see if it is safe. It's quiet in the room, there doesn't seem to be a lot there, but strangely enough there seems to be somewhat of a cool draft coming in; oddly different from the initial stuffiness the nest provides. Louie stares ahead at the red light moving around in front of the group before he decides to join him, looking around the room briefly.

"There doesn't  _seem_ to be any enemies here", Olimar responds, trying to see ahead into the dark. If he had to guess, he would say that where they were was somewhere-at the very least-close to centre of the nest. He knew not seeing any creatures wasn't the best indication that there weren't any there.

Louie nods unsurely, looking around.

With the apparent safety-for the time being at least-Olimar walks back to call the idle Pikmin that had been waiting at the entrance to the open room. They all follow behind as he begins to walk forward.

'Where was the Ship supposed to be?' The red-flowered captain ponders the question briefly. The insides of this cave are twisted with off-white webs, webs that cover the ceilings, the walls, the floor-

"It's hard to tell," Olimar replies after a while, "The area looks so much different from what I remember-" His eyes trace the brief appearance of what seems to be colour poking through on the ground.

For some reason something begins to feel very familiar.

He kneels down and starts pulling away at the webs hurriedly, digging through the layers.

'What is it?' Louie asks, rushing over. He watches as the ground slowly begins to show through the other's efforts.

Suddenly, what he seems to be looking at looks like a large alien letter, one shaped almost like a circle but with a flat side. The short captain stands to look back at it, his breath slightly bated.

"We're close," Olimar says, seemingly smiling at this find, "We're very close." Louie is taking turns looking at the strange letter and to the older with a sense of confusion.

'How do you know?' He watches as Olimar walks ahead quickly and further through and into the dark.

"I recognize the symbol," he says, stopping briefly, "This strange lettering had always been on the ground of the Wistful Wild landing site. At the time I hadn't really thought much about it-" He pauses as he's suddenly face to face and staring ahead at a large wall of white webs. He lightly places his hands against it.

'Woah.' Louie is looking up.

"The ship should be somewhere buried in here," he says, stepping back, "It must have gotten engulfed and covered by the webs somehow." The thought of just how that may have happened is off-putting but he quickly shakes it off. He turns around to the distant Pikmin, then-what Louie guesses at least-calls them over to where they stand. "We're going to have to dig it out."

Louie nods and steps back, giving the group some room. Olimar calls the entire group of 99 Pikmin to charge at the webs at once and suddenly the room is filled with nothing but calls and the sounds of their stems ceaselessly slapping. Olimar steps back and watches as well, visibly frowning.

"This is going to take a while…," he says, looking closer at how slow the effort seems to be taking. When the blond inspects the progress as well, he sees that is indeed the case. The webs are layered so heavily, it may take several minutes, even with the size of their group. "You should look around, see if there's anything else here."

Louie nods, going to look around the area, knowing that there is time to burn and arguably getting somewhat restless. He walks along the long stretch of webs that seem to extend through the entire centre, closely looking at the walls with interest. They seem to be different than the other webs that line the cave.

 _Whatever is behind this wall, it's really packed in there_.

He notices a certain carefulness that went into building these webs, a carefulness that wasn't really found with any of the other cave walls. The webs of this spot seem to be much more tightly knit together, and seemingly with some form of intention behind this.

_Whatever made these walls really wanted to hide something._

He reaches the point where he's drifted too far from Olimar's red light and it's started to get darker as he keeps moving. He's thinking maybe he should go back.

Louie jumps as suddenly there's a loud ringing sound that catches him off guard. He turns back to look at the source, it's notably coming from Olimar's direction.

"Stupid thing must be broken," he hears the captain comment. He recognizes the sound as the treasure gauge, of which seems to be malfunctioning erratically once more. He opts to ignore the sound, turning back to face the webs once more-

He squints as for a second he swore he seen  _movement_. He stares at the spot for around a minute before he decides it must've been his imagination. He turns to keep walking back-

Movement again. Looking back at that part of the web it all seemed to be  _wiggling_. Just in that one spot.

Louie stares at the anomaly as the movement seems to increase, increase, increase until there's suddenly something jutting out, something dark that's wriggling out of the web.

'Uh…Olimar?!'

He jumps back as there's suddenly something pushing its way out of the mass, something that now has a  _face_  and one that looks familiar-

A tiny infantile brown insect pops out of the webs, scurrying around on the ground aimlessly. It runs around his feet for a second before it runs off, dissolving into the darkness.

Louie doesn't have time to think about that little insect as suddenly there's movement from all over this mass of webs, tons of wiggling and squirming legs and faces and antennae all beginning to jut out-

Suddenly things are clicking into place for Louie that this isn't just some large wall of tightly wrapped webs-no-this is an  _egg sac._

'Oh no.'


End file.
